Product profile: Aitchison earthquaker
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The Aitchison Earthquaker is a versatile tool for removing pans, improving vertical drainage, and soil loosening in cultivation operations
The benefits of sub-soling and soil aeration are well acknowledged, particularly for the ability to create vertical fissures, which help the movement of water and nutrients to plant’s roots, which, in turn, helps increase production.
The process is also useful as a remedial action in ‘pugged’ paddocks or gateways by removing standing water and bringing ground back into production more quickly.
The Aitchison Earthquaker, marketed by Power Farming, features a 2.44-metre wide double-bar, high-tensile steel frame, and uses cast clamping components to secure legs or tines to the frame.
Straight legs or parabolic tines are manufactured from bis-alloy steels, with dimensions of 500mm by 16mm thick, to allow operating depths of 300–400mm. The straight leg is useful for creating ‘shatter’ while minimising inversion of the soil profile, so should suit those not wishing to bring clay sub-soils into the surface layer.
The curved, parabolic tine option sees a degree of inversion but offers key benefits in draught reduction by making the units around 30% easier to pull. Legs or tines each carry a knock-on/off point and wing assembly to ensure penetration and the sub-soil or pan shatter. Overload protection from stones or foreign objects is delivered by a 20mm transverse shear bolt that is pre-stressed to ensure a clean break.
Depending on requirements, a range of two to seven legs can be mounted to the frame, the former ideal for ‘loosening’ tramlines. The legs are easily adjusted to create the desired effect, typically requiring between 60 and 150hp for effective use.
In operation, depth control falls to a full-width flat roller assembly fitted with a scraper, which also serves to level and firm the surface after use. For those operating in grassland situations, optional 350mm diameter disc coulters cut a path through the sward, allowing the tine a clean entry and to work in conjunction with the rear roller, ensuring a prompt return to grazing or harvesting operations.
"The Earthquaker is not only a versatile tool for removing pans and improving vertical drainage but also lends itself to offering soil loosening in cultivation operations, perhaps ahead of discs, tines, or power harrows in primary cultivation or remedial situations," says Power Farming product manager JP Chapman.
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