I’ve been considering slashers for a long time, and have finally ordered and taken delivery of a 6′ FieldQuip Sabre 1800. It’s the base model from FieldQuip, but they are made locally in Australia – about 1 hr drive from the farm! I won’t be into slashing pasture much – that’s not the main purpose for it in my case. I’m more interested in slashing lantana, to minimise the use of herbicide. My neighbour John reckons lantana will cark it if slashed a number of times. Its a fairly large model for my tractor, but isn’t overly heavy (like a very heavy duty one this size would be). Considering my place isn’t smooth I’d prefer to have a wide slasher and drive slow as required, rather than narrow and fast.

Also purchased a Clark Ripper with a pipe layer attachment. Its a medium size, and the layer will do 50mm pipe fine (perhaps a little bigger, but I won’t be needing anything more). Should be useful for breaking up clay, to improve moisture penetration, without turning over and tilling the soil.

Haven’t used it much yet, just a few hours, but here are a couple of not very exciting vids of areas slashed. Not really wanting to cut the grass itself – just the lantana and weeds – so often the slasher is lifted and cutting higher than is typically done.

Unfortunately on the way back to the shed I hit a ‘submerged’ rock. Was sticking out just enough to catch the blade, right at the rear of the slasher. Rock didn’t budge so must be large and firmly embedded in the ground, and slasher now has a significant vibration that it didn’t have earlier. Did hit a couple of other rocks earlier (hard not to on our place!), but they didn’t cause any issues. Need to have a closer look and see what might have been bent/damaged.

I’ve also spent time the last few weekends welding up side walls for the cattle ramp. A ramp and yards will mean we can take delivery of cattle in the near future. Still got to finish that, and collect a heap of rock and soil to form the actual base of the ramp. Here’s an image from a few weeks ago – the start of it. 75x75mm RHS and 115x42mm cattle rail.