SWISS ROLE INGREEN BRACKEN CONTROL…
SWISS ROLE INGREEN BRACKEN CONTROL…
AN environmental contracting business, based on a Cumbria fell farm, is using a range of Swiss machinery to provide specialist control of bracken spread as well as heather management.
Sheep farmers Simon Bland and his partner Dr Jane Barker of Dalefoot Farm, Helton, near Penrith have set up Countryside Contractors with a range of Aebi equipment.
"We felt there was potential to develop a contracting business specialising in environmental work but discovering the Aebi TT70 Terratrac, which is used on high alpine meadows, was the turning point.
"Its the only machine the Department of Transport approve for motorway embankment work because it can work on slopes of up to 40 degrees," says Mr Bland.
The Terratrac is a 56hp machine, described as being half ATV, half tractor and has a 1.5-tonne lift capacity front and back.
Initially, with bracken control work in mind, the Rollmaster Weedwiper was selected to use with the Terratrac: "We had to have a piece of equipment that would give us good control over the delivery of the chemical.
Too risky
"Providing a contracting service for environmental projects demands total control over the application. We could not risk using equipment that might drip and flick the chemical anywhere other than exactly where it was required," says Dr Barker, an environmental scientist.
English Nature, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and several large northern estates are already among their clients.
"Where farmers and landowners are involved with environmental schemes such as ESA or stewardship they need permission to spray for bracken control. On SSSIs we have been brought in to control the spread of rushes," says Mr Bland.
Assembling a range of specialist equipment, careful selection of the chemical treatment and the timing of the application have produced an effective and acceptable range of contracting services. Chemicals are combined with a heavy oil or a polymer to ensure they stay where they are applied and do not run off the vegetation.
Bracken control achieved with the Rollmaster Weedwiper (using Asulox and Roundup) has been very effective. The 2.4m (8ft) wide machine, with its drum loaded with chemical, "oozes" the treatment out on to the plastic roller which comes into contact with vegetation and has several height settings. A full-drum can treat around eight acres.
Treatment, which can qualify for grant aid, will achieve total wipe-out of bracken (although a second treatment will probably be necessary). Natural regeneration should occur on the site. Cost is around £60/ha (£25/acre).
Countryside Contractors are also undertaking a wide range of heather management procedures based on cutting the heather and even baling it.
"Heather cutting is an alternative to burning but can also be used to create effective fire breaks before burning. Large areas of heather which need burning, particularly those near forestry, demand a very large work force to control the burn.
"Safety is paramount when burning heather so where labour is in short supply more effort has to be put into creating effective fire breaks.
Heather cutting
For heather cutting we are using a front-mounted flail cutter, mounted on the Terratrac. The big advantage of using the Terratrac is the weight transfer system which is not unlike that of a combine.
"It means we can more safely and effectively work the flail over very rough heather moorland as well as rushes and even gorse," says Mr Bland.
The fine heather mulch that is created by the flail is left behind and promotes heather regeneration. Work undertaken for the RSPB at Geltsdale in Cumbria has created a mosaic of heather "islands" divided by 2m widths within the moor for the benefit of grouse.
An Aebi "two knife" scissor-bar cutter is also being used where heather is cut for baling; a contract has just been completed for the Lake District National Park on Skiddaw. Heather bales are used to create shooting butts on some moors and because of the seed content of the bales they can be stored and then the spread material used later as part of regeneration schemes. *
Right: Simon Bland and Dr Jane Barker of Countryside Contractors.
Below: The Terratrac is put through its paces in a crop
of rushes.