Loftness Kwik-pic | A hydraulic shaker helps dirt to fall through the tined basket, in which large rocks are trapped
LUNDAR Man. — Tom Johnson has spent most of his 70 years picking rocks on the west side of Manitoba’s Interlake.
Crop yields in his part of the province never match those in the Red River Valley, but the numbers are respectable when nature co-operates.
“In the long run, I figure cheaper land makes up for the nuisance of dealing with rocks,” said Johnson, who crops 4,000 acres in addition to running a 2,000 head cow-calf operation and custom forage harvesting outfit with his sons.
“We have to pick rocks on this land every year.”
Read Also
Supreme Court gives thumbs-up emoji case the thumbs down
Saskatchewan farmer wanted to appeal the court decision that a thumbs-up emoji served as a signature to a grain delivery contract.
Three years ago, Johnson found a machine that lets him pick and move only those rocks big enough to damage seeding equipment. He ignores the smaller stuff.
The Loftness Kwik-pik is smaller than conventional pull-type rock pickers. It mounts to the front of a skid steer loader or small mechanical front-wheel assist tractor.
The hydraulic shaker removes dirt, clay and other debris from the tined basket of rocks.
“We go into each field in the spring with this thing on the Bobcat, just before seeding,” he said.
“The Bobcat is very manoeuvreable. He can run from rock to rock really quick and pick them up, shake off the dirt and go dump them.”
Johnson said it’s quicker than anything else he has tried. Keeping topsoil on the field is important in an area with a thin A soil horizon.
He and his son, Gordy, used the machine in early November to bury an old rock pile.
Johnson used a Cat to dig a pit next to the rock pile. Black topsoil went into a small heap and subsoil went into a bigger heap.
But instead of using the Cat to push the rocks and soil into the hole, Gordy used the Kwik-pik to shake soil off the rocks before dumping them into the pit.
The low quality soil was then pushed into the pit and the topsoil went back on the surface.
“It cost us about $7,000 to buy this rock picker three years ago,” Johnson said.
“ It’s saved us a lot of time since then. We’ve buried a lot of old rock piles.”
The Loftness Kwik-pik, built in Hector, Minnesota, is designed for clearing rocks, logs, roots, bricks and construction debris. The shaker’s vigorous action should remove most clinging surface material.
It has a front dump bucket with enough lift to fill a tandem truck. It handles rocks up to 24 inches in diameter. The hydraulic requirement is six gallons per minute.
The tines are one-inch high carbon steel, and the grated bottom has two-inch openings. A protective screen prevents debris from flying back toward the operator.
There are four models, ranging from the 48-inch unit that handles a half cubic yard to the 84-inch machine that handles one full cubic yard.
The smallest is the 480, which weighs 855 pounds with an 1,800 lb. lift capacity. The largest is the 840, which weighs 1426 lb. with a lift capacity higher than 2,700 lb.
Loftness says the 840 is designed for the New Holland bi-directional tractor.
Prices run from $6,071 for the 480 to $8,491 for the 840.
For more information, contact Tom Johnson at 204-762-5534 or visit www.loftness.com.
