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  • From: mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Elephants in Permaculture
  • Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 08:21:34 -0600

surely there must be some real life examples of elephant's usage in
field work....

On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 6:13 AM, Lawrence F. London, Jr.
<venaurafarm@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> On 2/8/2012 1:52 AM, wenshidi@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
>> One question. The tilthing machine is a great idea but why is it so
>> expensive?
>
> Replace 70hp tractor with elephant, mount wheels and adjustable height
> frame on hiller-bedder-tilther and get to work.
>
> The unit I used was made up of off the shelf components from Roll-A-Cone
> Mfg. in Tulia Texas. I fine tuned positioning of components on the frame
> and it worked flawlessly. I have often wondered if I am the only one in
> history who has use this exact implement. I used a three shank Yeomans
> Keyline plow also. This too could be adapted for pulling with draft
> animal with wheels and adjustable frame. For a whole lot more money than
> I spent on mine you can buy very elaborate setups from Yeomans, ready to
> go with draft animal but lacking any PTO or hydraulic components. This
> unit would cover the tracks of the elephant
> in final passes, making sure not work wet dirt if it is anything other
> than sandy or black prairie loam.
> It can all be seen here, Yeomans included:
> https://picasaweb.google.com/103223907782626104592/TractorEquipment
> This would be the ideal implement for use in China, Southeast Asia,
> India, the Phillipines or anywhere else in the World, especially here in
> the USA.
> I have used these units for years and know what they can do for heavy
> silt loam soil. You can easily turn red dirt into brown dirt with the
> necessary soil amendments and cover cropping. They would work well in a
> minimum till scenario, working toward no till and manual cultivation as
> needed for weed control and seedbed preparation.
> I am sure that Roll-A-Cone would ship components to foreign countries.
> Units can be fabricated to almost any width but the desired result is
> one big wide tall flat raised bed with drainage channels beside the beds
> and between parallel rows of beds. You could do one bed, two bed or
> three bed units and use multiple elephants, horses or oxen to pull them.
> A one bed unit is the best way to go; just take the time needed to do a
> good job on each bed. Of course you could use multiple animals pulling
> one bed units. The final configuration is had involved a hiller bedder
> on a frame with two eight foot toolbars.  26" disks were mounted, two
> per side, one in front and one in rear, offset; these covered the
> tractor tracks and cleaned out the drainage trenches putting dirt up
> onto the bed. There were four chisel plow shanks mounted on the front
> toolbar, spaced equidistant. On the rear toolbar, between the two rear
> discs I mounted two subsoiler shanks; these were somewhat smaller than
> you dedicated single shank subsoiler but did the same thing. All disks
> and points worked together to create the raised beds. The chisel shanks
> tilthed the bed and levelled it somewhat while the rear subsoilers
> knocked bed height down and made the top of the bed flat and wide. The
> disks moved the dirt into place in a big hill between
> tractor tires while the other tools tilthed and flattened the bed. A
> compromise was reached between bed height and width with the arrangement
> and positioning of the various tools. The final configuration was
> perfect, the best that could be achieved with this implement. I will
> admit that I did not try all the tooling available for this unit and
> better combinations may exist but this one did exactly what I wanted.
>
> Got all that, Chris? Now you're ready to start importing to China to
> distribute to farmers working land where this unit can be best used. It
> would, absolutely, be perfect for flat land farming in China or
> anywhere. I will offer my consultancy for a modest fee....:-)
> Seriously I could give you specifications and parts list for one unit
> and you could go from there, ordering from Roll-A-Cone. BTW all these
> components are packaged and shipped individually, assemply happens on
> site. Pricing: a bargain in todays world, price increases
> notwithstanding. Roll-A-Cone serves the needs of fermers, large and
> small. Also I bought one of thir 6 foot Cat 3 three point hitch toolbars
> to mount my three Yeomans shanks on, as shown in the pictures. This
> works perfectly well, no fancier unit is needed for creating,
> conditioning and renovating raised beds.
>
> LL
>
>>> In combination for land clearing and soil fertilization and
>>> tilthing:
>>>
>>> Elephants and goats followed by pigs and poultry, then crops, in
>>> rotation as often as is needed. Have the elephant pull a
>>> hiller/beddder/tilther if you don't already use draft animals to do
>>> this (horses, mules or oxen).
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