Rata beet bucket review
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Check out Jaiden Drought’s review of the latest Rata beet bucket…
Phases come and go, such as the recent explosion in popularity of Pokemon GO (personally I think the world has actually gone mad). However, something which has proven itself –and is here to stay – is the popularity of fodder and sugar beet.
Initially booming in the South Island, it has now grown (pun intended) throughout the North Island like mushrooms with year-on-year increases in planted hectares. Beet is everywhere you look in the Canterbury region. There are planters, lifters, paddocks full of the stuff and cows flat out grazing it. With the yield potential and the ability to pile weight on cattle in a short time period with the feed quality, it’s no wonder it is so popular.
With beet, you essentially have three options. The first is beet grazed in the paddock. This is obviously the most cost-effective option, and generally is fodder beet.
The second option is to lift the beet entirely, which generally means sugar beet is grown for the more uniform bulb size which is easier on the harvester.
The third option is more of a hybrid where you grow a variety that you can either graze or lift (although this doesn’t affect the bucket). This is the time for the beet bucket to shine, as it gives you flexibility during the niggly transition period. It allows you to lift some beet to get the cows used to the taste and the high ME content, so the gut bacteria can adjust before grazing in the paddock takes place with the ever-present risk of acidosis if the power on the fences isn’t up to scratch.
The test
Cue this month’s test where I headed to Hinds, in the heart of South Canterbury, to meet up with John Jefferson who owns a 140ha dairy platform and a 100ha run off block just outside Hinds where he and his team milk 560 cows. They successfully integrated fodder beet into their system a number of years ago.
The main reason for growing the crop is the ability to winter a large number of cows on a small area with higher energy content than either kale or swedes, which directly equates to better conditioned cows entering the milking platform once calved.
This is their second season with the Rata beet bucket and it is shared between three farms, which in itself really sums up the flexibility the beet bucket allows. You have the ability to scoop up however many days from one (straight into the feedout wagon) to 10 (any more and the leaf can start to degrade) by heaping it up in the paddock and then reloading into the feedout wagon with your normal bucket if the beet bucket is at the other farm.
Features
The team at Rata have kept the list of features low, instead focusing on strength.
Our test machine was a 2.6-metre, 1.4m3 430kg tare weight bucket, which is in the middle of the line-up with the smaller 2.4-metre 1.3m3 400kg and the largest being the three-metre 1.8m3 520kg bucket for the big tractors/telehandlers on more industrial set ups.
All feature 25mm solid bars for sifting the beet from the dirt, and a high tensile cutting edge for long lasting performance and a long bucket base to help keep the bucket level.
The verdict
Gear such as this does not need a complicated novel written about it, as it is the kind of machine that either does its job or it doesn’t. The Rata beet bucket definitely did a good job and is proof that often is the simplest ideas have the most merit.
Pros
- Great machine to aid the prickly transition period
- Very simple and easy to use
- Almost bomb proof, I would suspect you will bend your loader before bending one of these buckets
- Is a multi-purpose tool, great for cleaning up crop paddocks, stone picking or even loading maize (if your tractor is big enough)
- Great machine to aid the prickly transition period
- Very simple and easy to use
- Almost bomb proof, I would suspect you will bend your loader before bending one of these buckets
- Is a multi-purpose tool, great for cleaning up crop paddocks, stone picking or even loading maize (if your tractor is big enough)
Cons
- You can’t just chuck anyone on it as it as you will have more soil than beet but like most good things once acquainted, it will be a piece of cake
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