Giant Erosion Control Blanket

Giant Erosion Control Blanket MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 29-6-40 We spotted these giant erosion-control blankets at the recent Ohio Farm Science Review Show. Carl Hamman operates a business called Watershed Management, and part of his work involves building waterways in farm fields. His big 16-ft. wide by 562-ft. long straw mats are made by ErosionControlBlanket.com Inc. of St. Andrews, Manitoba, and Hamman is the Ohio distributor. He sells the mats to do-it-yourselfers and will also install them. Each mat is wound around a cardboard tube and consists of a layer of barley straw held in place between a biodegradable polypropylene net on bottom and white stitching on top. Once the mat is rolled out, metal pins are used to hold it down. Five equally spaced black lines extend across the width of the rolled-out mat to mark where the pins should go. You can get down on your hands and knees and use a hammer to pound the pins into the ground, or use a $600 staple gun offered by the company. Hamman invented his own patented "pounder" that consists of a lightweight wooden rod equipped with a round magnet at the bottom. It simply punches pins through the mat and into the ground. The pins last 1 1/2 to 2 years and will eventually disintegrate. "Once the mat is on the ground it stays put. You won't have to worry about it ever washing away," says Hamman. "It works better than throwing loose straw on the ground and then crimping it and pinning a net over it. The company makes erosion controls blankets anywhere from 4 to 16 ft. wide, so if the waterway requires a narrower mat they can provide it. The 16-ft. wide by 562-ft. long mat that I use weighs about 500 lbs. I transport the mats on a trailer and use a forklift to lift them off. It takes three or four people to roll the mat out. If the customer wants a narrower mat the company can divide the 16 ft. into any width." According to Hamman, there are other straw mats on the market but most of them are only 8 ft. wide by 50 ft. long, and they don't come with two layers of fabric to hold them in place. The cost to lay down a 16-ft. wide by 562-ft. long mat is $450, which comes out to 45 cents per square yard. "Government cost sharing help is often available," notes Hamman. The pounder sells for $20; the pins sell for $50 for a box of 1,000. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Carl Hamman, 10460 S.R. 56 S.E., Mt. Sterling, Ohio 43143 (ph 740 852-5607; nhamman 352@aol.com).

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