Monday, May 14, 2012

Sandy gets the low down on Cotton farming

After the ANZAC ceremonies on the 25th of April, Mary Anne and David took us outfor the afternoon to a cotton farm near St George to explain it all and to get us a ride in the new cotton pickers David had been putting together as part of his job.


David explains to Sandy all about the cotton plant, how to farm it, what they are looking for and how to grade it.


Sandy watches one of the new cotton pickers discharge one of the finished cotton bales


I thought our Land Cruiser was a big beast, but not compared with one of these boys. This machine can pick 6 lines of cotton at one go.


Sandy is up for a ride, the cabin sits in the middle and is fully computerised.

This machine has satellite navigation, 360 degree vision via cameras, it also has cameras inside the machine so you can keep and eyeout for any problems, and a multitude of sensors, so if anything does go wrong you know exactly where. Down time for these machines becomes expensive, they cost $900,000.00 new, so if there are any problems they send out a specialised mechanic in a helicopter - there you go Kris, one for you?

My turn

Its great on cotton, I wonder if it is any good on grass, we could get our mowing time for the lawn down from 6 hours to maybe 30mins?

Mary Anne with Sandy. Mary Anne and David use to farm cotton, before retiring from farming.

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