Mole Drainage Any Good / What HP Tractor

PN14

My dad has small dairy farm in south Limerick and given the weather :mad: over the last few summers and the likelyhood that its going to continue we have been looking at some methods of draining some of the paddocks.

Have any of you any expierence of Mole Drainage? Is it a success or not. Our land would have 300mm of topsoil overlying a heavy clay. There would be no boulers, stones or gravel.

I have looked at some single leg mole ploughs and was wondering what HP tractor would be required to pull these. We have a MF4345 4wd would this do.

Any comments or advice on the above would be much appreciated.

reilig

PN14 wrote: »

My dad has small dairy farm in south Limerick and given the weather :mad: over the last few summers and the likelyhood that its going to continue we have been looking at some methods of draining some of the paddocks.

Have any of you any expierence of Mole Drainage? Is it a success or not. Our land would have 300mm of topsoil overlying a heavy clay. There would be no boulers, stones or gravel.

I have looked at some single leg mole ploughs and was wondering what HP tractor would be required to pull these. We have a MF4345 4wd would this do.

Any comments or advice on the above would be much appreciated.

It really shouldn't have a problem pulling it. I mole ploughed with a 290 4wd a few years ago with no problem. It will depend on the size or the mole on the plough. Of course, the bigger the better fro drainage, but the hardser it is pulled.

whelan1

we are mole draining at the minute with a nh tm125 ... no bother to it ....

reilig

whelan1 wrote: »

we are mole draining at the minute with a nh tm125 ... no bother to it ....

Hi Whelan,

How are ye mole draining? I mean, are you ploughing the mole into an existing shore or are you starting on an open drain and pulling the mole uphill to have a gradient on the mole????

I have very heavy soil and mole drained it about 5 years ago. It really didn't make a lot of difference to the land. I started by dropping the mole plough into a newly cleaned drain and pulled it uphill. The holes flowed water for a couple of months, but the ground didn't seem to get any drier. The moles closed up after a couple of months - even though they were in daub.

Let us know how ye get on.

whelan1

we have existing drains - very heavy land- the drains are going up and down the field and we are going over and back the field..the existing drains are 27 inches deep with 18 inches of stone which is 10 inches from the top , we are mole draining to a dept of 17 inches so the mole is going 7 inches in to the drainage stone but not hitting the pipe iykwim

cormywormy

I had a double leg sub-soiler on my 390 ,it struggled when you let it in to deep but it flew other than that.I will put a vid on youtube soon.

bk1991

i have sub soiled with single leg sub soiler with 100-90dt fiat no prob to it coulnd have pulled a twin leg one !

reilig

bk1991 wrote: »

i have sub soiled with single leg sub soiler with 100-90dt fiat no prob to it coulnd have pulled a twin leg one !

Subsoiler is much easier to pull than the mole plough. Its the size of the mole ball that determines how hard it is to pull it. Your Fiat would easily handle a triple leg subsoiler, but put a mole on it and the pressure will soon come on.

PN14

Hi Guys thanks for the replies to date.

Rellig what size mole ball or expander is required. Is this attached to the back of the plough point? Sorry if these questions are basic its just that I have never seen any mole ploughing done so I'm really starting from scratch.

reilig

PN14 wrote: »

Hi Guys thanks for the replies to date.

Rellig what size mole ball or expander is required. Is this attached to the back of the plough point? Sorry if these questions are basic its just that I have never seen any mole ploughing done so I'm really starting from scratch.

The mole ball is attached to the back of the plough point. For the drainage grants in the 1980's it was a requirement that the ball had to be at least 4 inches in diameter. These were pulled with a dozer. The ball on my mole plough is roughly 3 inches in diameter and I think that this is pretty standard for tractor pulled ploughs.

whelan1

we lost the bullet yesterday :mad::mad: got 2 new ones 55 euro plus vat each

bk1991

reilig wrote: »

Subsoiler is much easier to pull than the mole plough. Its the size of the mole ball that determines how hard it is to pull it. Your Fiat would easily handle a triple leg subsoiler, but put a mole on it and the pressure will soon come on.

there is a large ball on chain at the back of the leg so shes a mole plough u could say .went through floods today and they disapered .more so doing headlands and tramlines .

polod

did any one see the lad on donedeal from roscommon advertising with a 150hp zetor tractor and mole plough for hire ?........just rang him to find out a price .......he said he would do 12 acres in a day for a cost of 250euro ........i have heavy soil would it be a waste of time getting him or should i buy a load of gravel with the 250 instead also i have a 390T 4wd would it be worth my while buying a mole plough if they are good ?

Nobbies

12 acres in aday mole ploughing.i think that would be along day if done properly,anyway i,de say ur 390 would,nt be able for amole plough,u,de be better off hiring in some one.there not easy pulled on falling ground.you need the weight in front off them and power.

polod

Nobbies wrote: »

12 acres in aday mole ploughing.i think that would be along day if done properly,anyway i,de say ur 390 would,nt be able for amole plough,u,de be better off hiring in some one.there not easy pulled on falling ground.you need the weight in front off them and power.

cheers ah yeah was just thinking that .........you would need a good 150hp to do it properly like your mans ........hoping to get it done in august if a good spell of weather comes