The land has not had much "maintenance "over the years we have only just started putting Farm Yard Manure (courtesy of sheep) on it after we saved up and bought a dung spreader. The dung spreader is towed behind the tractor and connected to the PTO or Power Take Off - this is shaft on the back of most tractors which provides mechanical power to various machinery. The use of Farm Yard Manure saves us buying and using nitrogen fertilisers. However there is more handling involved and it is not so concentrated, but it is much cheaper.
In 2011 we had a lone of a Browns Aerator from the Devon Wildlife Trust machinery ring.
The Aerator is attached to the tractor on the 3 point linkage and weighted with something heavy, in this case concrete blocks and driven over the land to break up any soil compaction and aerate the roots of the grass it also helps drainage. It is just pulled across the land by the tractor you have to put a certain amount of weight on it. We put eleven concrete blocks weighing about 220 kilos. The Aerator is lowed on the Position control lever right down to level 1 which is the fully floating setting on our Ford 4610, this allows the Aerator to lift up if it hits a rock and Draft control is set to off. We trialed the Aerator in several fields.
Our initial purpose for the Aerator was to help with drainage. The theory is that the Aerator breaks up compacted soil and lets air and water through. We have taken soil samples from the various fields. The soil samples were taken from five different points in a "W" shape. A sample from the side of the field that was "Aerated" and sample from the side which was not. The samples were sent to Mole Avon for analysis (by Lancrop Laboratories). The results were quiet interesting
Non Aerated Side
Aerated Side
