He said the 400ha area had been stick raked around eight years ago but pasture quality had deteriorated significantly due to poor water infiltration and the re-emergence of suckers.
     Mr Hurst was extremely pleased with the performance of the new 16-disc Savannah plough, which he said is particularly useful on country with poor water retention.
     "The job it did was probably better than what a blade plough would do in a lot of ways because of the way it leaves the soil well turned and very loose," he said. "The major drawback 1 can see is that it doesn't remove stumps like a blade plough will although if you are just using it to renovate grass country it doesn't matter if you still have stumps in the paddock.
     "The main thing is that it is cost effective and 1 found that it worked out to be between $20 and $30 an acre for everything including the tractor and fuel."
     Mr Hurst said the Savannah plough also worked fairly quickly, doing between 7 and 8 acres an hour.

     "Like any new machinery it took a little while to get things sorted out and we made a few adjustments but once we got it going it was pretty quick," he said.
     Savannah Equipment managing director David Heckendorf said the plough weighs around 16 tonnes and has 16 discs, each 12mrn thick and 36 inches in diameter. He said the discs have a jump height of 33 inches before tthe jump arm tops out on the frame.
     "This feature allows the plough to pass over quite large immovable obstructions such as rocks and stumps," he said.
     "The discs are controlled by an accumulator and individual 2.5 inch displacement cylinders.
     "The width of cut can he adjusted while operating by using the hydraulic steering cylinder."

For more information contact Savannah on
 (07) 5446 8872.