Tree-Planting Machine Built For Tough Prairie Sod

Tree-Planting Machine Built For Tough Prairie Sod CROPS Miscellaneous 27-6-11 Before he passed away suddenly in August, Roger W. Bennett of Pierre, S. Dak., sent in a story idea to FARM SHOW - a custom designed, 3-pt. mounted tree fabric laying machine that he helped build. Bennett worked for the South Dakota State Department of Game, Fish and Parks, where the staff is involved chiefly in wildlife habitat management. "Roger worked for us and was a good machinist and really good with a welder. He was skilled at what he did, and his passing was a great loss," says Larry Miller, who as the facility's Conservation Foreman, was Roger's boss. "We had used commercial machines for laying tree fabric in the past, but found we needed something heavier for our prairie sod conditions. It was also cheaper if we could build our own. Roger was an excellent machinist and welder." Instead of using plow sweeps to cover the edges of the plastic, like on other machines, they custom manufactured their own, making them heavier and stronger. The whole unit has heavier bracing as well, especially on the stress points such as the corners and front end. Workers start by preparing a site the fall before, chiseling and tilling strips of soil, with a strip of grass sod left between the rows to discourage weed competition. In the spring, they plant dormant, commercial grade root stock trees from a nursery, 3 to 10 ft. apart, depending on the species. Each row is 10 ft. apart (on center). Once the trees are in the ground, they make another pass with the fabric-laying machine, which rolls out a six-foot wide strip of woven poly fabric. An operator sitting on the machine manually cuts slits in the fabric for the trees to go through, and the machine cuts and rolls a strip of dirt/sod mixture onto either side of the fabric, to hold it down. Eight-inch staples are also applied manually, to secure the fabric to the ground. "The sod gives a lot more resistance than black dirt, so our method of fabric laying takes extra strength," Miller explains, adding that the fabric they use decomposes after 10 years. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Larry Miller, c/o South Dakota State Game, Fish and Parks, 28569 Power House Road, Pierre, S. Dak. 57501.

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