Slashin' da grass

The grass cutting season is upon us, or should I say the grass slashing season. It was only yesterday when I discovered that the piece of machinery that we use to 'cut' grass in the vineyards, technically, is known as a grass slasher. It's fairly logical really....

The piece of kit (similar to the photo above) that we attach to the back of our tractors does not actually have blades, and therefore does not cut. In reality it uses some fairly heavy duty steel chains that rotate at high speed horizontal to the ground, like a giant strimmer that removes pretty much anything in its path. Of course this includes any small stones or rocks laying on the ground which are ejected like rifle bullets, so you really don't want to be standing near this machine when it's working!

Obviously grass 'slashing' is a time consuming chore, but for our vineyards we think that it is a much better option than herbicide.