“We tend to rely on two LO 100/300 models as the mainstay of our ploughing operation, for working ahead of power harrow drill combinations,” explains Clive Tedbury (pictured), who runs the arable side of the operation alongside business partner Neil Clarkson, who takes care of the firm’s silage operations.
“In a typical season, which can include maize seedbeds plus spring and autumn cultivations, we can turn over around 4,000 acres with these two ploughs,” says Clive. “Any additional ploughing is carried out with the two older models.”
Such an intensive workload has seen the firm migrate through the last nine years from using standard metal to tungsten tipped parts, as it deals with a mix of ground conditions including aggressive, hard wearing soils. And now the firm has progressed to Kverneland’s XHD metal for its two front-line LO ploughs, supplied by C&O Tractors.
“Typically, we can get around 2,000-2,500 acres out of a set of XHD metal,” he says. “Yes, it’s costly to buy, but when you’ve worn through a set and factored in where and how you’ve saved, it’s a no-brainer.”
Those savings are three-fold; a significant reduction in downtime; improved operator safety from less frequent changing of wearing metal; and far fewer shelves of parts that need to be kept in stock.
“We used to be changing non-genuine tungsten points every 300 acres, but since we’ve swapped to Kverneland XHD points, we’ve increased point life by around six to one,” says Clive. “Changing plough metal is never straight forward, so this is another huge benefit.”
“There’s no doubt that XHD keeps our ploughs working, for longer. And that means we can schedule re-metalling for the quieter periods, rather than having to change parts during very busy periods,” he says. “And when the ground is hard, Kverneland points will always pull in. There’s no way I would go ever away from tungsten.”
