Roadside Grass Slashing - Reimagined and Smarter

Aussie innovators on the road to world markets

By 02 August 2016

An Australian innovation is about to enter world markets to automate the hazardous, costly and never-ending task of slashing roadside grass around millions of poles, fences, safety barriers and signposts lining highways and byways.

Instead of whole teams of roadside workers laboriously manually trimming vegetation around the multitude of safety fence poles and advisory signs involved, the new SlasherTeck innovation uses one man on a tractor to do the job in a fraction of the time. It is also environmentally harmonious, because it drastically reduces the need for chemical spraying of grass and instead delivers a recyclable mulch.  “Not only does this make roadside work safer, but also cuts out a huge part of the hazard for passing traffic that currently has to suddenly slow down for men at work. The job is done much sooner and the hazard is removed much quicker,” says Nathan Boyle of SlasherTeck, which is marketing the machine throughout Australia during the first stage of its world launch.

The patented secret of the SlasherTeck innovation is a rotating triple-bladed mulching unit that can slash around posts. The strong and durable unit, incorporating a single slot to accommodate posts of different sizes, works by being located with a post at its centre and then rotated completely around the post using a hydraulically driven motor and 12 mulching blades. “The slasher cuts the rest of the verge as per normal, then once it approaches a post, the operator engages the post-slashing process, which rotates the blades a full 180 degrees in approximately 10 seconds,” says Nathan Boyle.

The clever cutter, linked with the recently patented Slasher Operation and Asset Management System (SOAMS) has the ability to remember the work it has done, using GPS and Cloud-based technology, so that when the grass grows back it knows where the posts are on a particular stretch of road and can repeat the job it did previously. This Asset Management programme saves further time and cost and further enhances road safety.

SlasherTeck’s innovation is the result of some radically different thinking from its developers Down Under, a consortium of practical-minded businessmen, manufacturing from the Hunter Valley region of NSW.

In their search for a better way to do the job, as requested by local authorities and State Governments, they turned conventional thinking inside out: instead of their machine nibbling at the verges from the outside edges towards the centre of the post, they placed the post at the centre of the cutting action and revolved the cutters around the axis of the post. “It is literally a revolutionary approach,” says consortium member Tom Woods, who with his brother Glenn directs T.W. Woods Construction, a national metal engineering company which has transformed the SlasherTeck from concept to manufactured reality.

The SlasherTeck Consortium – including New Holland Tractors and McConnel Equipment – has conducted extensive trials to ensure the concept works before stepping out into national and world markets. The new machine is built to the same virtually bulletproof standards that go into T.W. Woods’ giant multi-storey train loaders and coal materials handling equipment that the company produces for world leaders in the demanding resources sector.  “We make all our products tough because our markets demand the reliability and credibility of world-class producers. Local and State authorities also deal in big projects and large asset bases where time is money, so they need to know the product is as tough as they come,” said Tom Woods.

Asset Management
SlasherTeck products seamlessly integrate with their own asset management system, SOAMS (Slasher Operation and Asset Management System), a GPS based operation and asset management system that has been designed to accumulate valuable data from each maintenance run.

SOAMS uses a combination of the slasher location, point of engagement, some additional hardware and a custom-built cloud-based app to provide a work-as-executed profile and asset location, type and condition data set.

Components
Reach Arm Mower Head: For long strips of roadside barriers, SlasherTeck has a reach arm mower head that attaches onto a reach arm for the clearing of vegetation around and underneath the barriers, which can stretch on for kilometres at a time. The cutting width is 900mm and the slasher head has three sets of cutting and mulching blades that are driven by high quality hydraulic motors.

Front Mounted Slasher: The front-mounted slasher is the workhorse of the line-up, comprising of two models with cutting widths of 1200mm and 1800mm. This slasher is primarily used for the majority of accessible applications with the ability to clear the vegetation around posts in the same pass. This slasher has three sets of cutting and mulching blades that are driven by high quality hydraulic motors.

Side Shift Tilt Hitch: This unit maximises the effectiveness of the Front Mounted Slasher. It is positioned between the tractor and the Front Mounted Slasher and allows the slasher to be shifted up to 900mm to the off-side and rotates up to a 15 degree angle to meet the ground profile.

Read more at http://www.fatcow.com.au/articles/news/aussie-innovators-on-the-road-to-world-markets-n2525827#3brA8lJfcXq1hPVq.99

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I have not seen any reviews or roadtesting but it does seem to be a very smart idea, and would be a great improvement over existing grass slashing.

Caring For Your Zoysia Lawn in Hot Weather

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has today announced the next three months across the East and North of Australia will be drier and warmer than normal.

That means a strong likelihood of your turf areas needing more irrigation than usual.  Your turf might be stressed.  How can you best handle the issues that arise?

Adequate potassium fertiliser is a wise option.  Potassium boosts stress response in plants as it helps develop better structural tissues, including cell walls, and aids plants in overcoming or being resistant to water stress, as well as the related heat stresses, even in those varieties with superior heat adaptation.

Use a fertiliser mix with adequate potassium, applied soon, or add up to 1-2 kg / 100 sq  m of potassium sulfate or even potassium nitrate as the fertiliser. You may need to look more widely for these but they are around. Slow release NPK mixes tend to use one or other of these products, but you want a potash content of around 10-15% in the mix.  Avoid muriate of potash which is potassium chloride, as it can add saltiness to your turf area.  Muriate of potash is readily available, and can be cheap, but it a short term gain that can add to long term problems.

And what about the perennial issue of mowing?

There is a tendency to mow the lawn shorter in warm weather……..as if you might be able to avoid an extra cut by doing that.

Reality is you are best to actually cut the lawn less frequently and slightly higher, when there is hot, dry, stressing weather!  Long leaf that is uncut means less water loss from the cut edges and better soil cover from the leaves that helps control soil temperature and lower water loss from both evaporation and transpiration.  When weather turns and some decent rain arrives, then you could mow at a lower height………but not too low unless you have a very strong need for a “golf green” appearance, and the mower is suitable.

Zoysia is well adapted to hot weather, and can easily adapt to mowing heights between 15 – 60mm.  It is suggested that heights of 35 – 45mm [possibly slightly more] are suitable when the weather is hot and dry.  Switch to a lower cut height [around 20-25mm] once more regular rain is imminent.  Always remember that you do not want to remove more than one third of the sward height at any one mowing.

It is better to manage your turf and even avoid too much mowing.  You can achieve a good quality zoysia turf with maybe 50% of the water demand [ currently up to 50% of the 6-8mm a day of evapo-transpiration in Darwin] applied on every second or third day] especially if the turf has good soil cover.  Would you prefer mowing weekly or every three or four weeks?  It can be done to manage water, fertiliser and mow frequency to achieve a good turf that is functional and looks good, and is mown at 4 week intervals [ but check for weeds too].

You want your turf to develop a deep strong root system that can access water from up to around 150mm [ or more] deep in the soil profile, and not the shallow 25mm deep roots promoted by short watering that only superficially wets the profile to 25 – 40mm.  

Infrequently mown zoysia as a median strip in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Longer, less frequent irrigation is definitely superior and aids developing a robust root system that can be functionally efficient in scavenging water.

What Mowing Height for Compadre Zoysia?

The non answer is - "it depends"!!

A good option is to aim for around 20 -25mm cut height, a height easily achieved using a common rotary mower.

Some people have used a much higher cut height - 100mm and even up to 150mm.  Personally, I believe that is probably too high, although for less maintained larger commercial areas there can be justification for maybe more than 25mm as a cut height.  Cutting too high all the time often reduces lawn vigour, especially lateral development, so that when cut lower at a different time of the year, the appearance of the area is not good.  A good compromise is to use a cut around  35 - 50 mm, which can reduce mowing frequency even more while having a reasonable appearance.  A word of warning though - zoysia turf can get spongy if cut too high repeatably, and develop thatch, as well as often developing a bit of loss of leaf green colouring due to lower light at the grass surface.  Yes, an area can be left to grow a little, for example, if the owner is away for a period, but getting back to a lower height is desirable, and that may take two cuts to reduce lawn height from 100mm or more, back to 25mm

Compadre zoysia can also be cut much shorter which encourages better lateral development and a dense surface appearance.  To do it well, a sharp bladed cylinder mower is preferred, and a cut of 5-10mm is certainly possible, although a good flat, hollow free surface is essential to have a good final finish and avoid scalping of the surface.

The occasional cut with a rotary mower at 12-15mm is okay though as it will pick up surface debris and reduce accumulation of thatch.  All zoysia turf varieties do have more material closer to the ground and it is surprising how much additional leaf material will be cut once you start lowering the mowing height below 20mm - you can often double the amount of clippings collected.

Compadre sod production
 

That also raises an important issue - with zoysia turf it is important to collect the clippings and remove them after mowing.  Some types of turf can tolerate leaving the clippings on the surface eg carpet grass and Bahia grass, but it is not prudent to do so for zoysia.  It promotes thatch development, and can boost disease and related problems.  Yes - collect and remove the clippings when you mow.  The exception is when a lawn is still developing and some additional organic material may be useful. But leaving material may be unwise if there are a lot of weed seeds present on the area as can occur in new lawn development.  Use some judgment on this one!

In most warm areas, a 20 - 25mm cut of zoysia turf, and modest fertiliser and irrigation, will allow at least 2 -3 weeks between mowings in the warm season and up to 6 weeks in cooler periods of the year, while still maintaining a great appearance.  You might also get a longer period as well particularly with prudent reduced irrigation, that does not reduce aesthetic appearance.  I do!