“That would have taken me 5-10 times longer…”
Conrad Arnzen, North Idaho farmer – “At one point it took them 8 minutes to pick a complete skid steer bucket full. That would have taken me at least 5-10 times longer and I would have climbed on and off the tractor 25+ times. TerraClear did all this sitting down in an air conditioned cab…”
TerraClear is designing solutions based on listening to the farmers, understanding their pain points and finding solutions that increase efficiency during their most critical windows. TerraClear provides Rock Picking Services in the Camas Prairie of Idaho County. One of the farmers who utilized our services was Conrad Arnzen, a small farmer who has a continual rock problem. He has several fields that require rock removal every season to avoid significant damage to his equipment and down time during harvest. He requested that we pick a 20 acres section of his 76 acre field.
The TerraClear team got to work immediately by flying the entire field, creating a Rock Map and picking his field with the Rock Picker. When Conrad was presented with the results of the Rock Map, he was surprised to see that although most of the rock were in the 20 acres he usually picks, there were several 10″+ rocks scattered in other areas of the field. Without the Rock Map, Conrad would not have known about these rocks and may have damaged his equipment; leading to down time during harvest. A TerraClear operator demonstrated how to use the Rock Picker and, in no time at all, Conrad discovered how much more efficient and labor saving it is to pick rock with the TerraClear Rock Map and Rock Picker.
Conrad uses a front end loader with a bucket to pick rock. He picks rock by himself frequently and it requires him to get in and out of the equipment numerous times if he can’t easily get the rock in the bucket. Conrad was pleased to see that the TerraClear Rock Picker was versatile and quick moving from rock to to rock. It did not require the operator to get out of the cab.
The TerraClear team ended up picking for 4 hours for Conrad and picked over 1050 rocks. Conrad figures that would have taken him 5-10x times longer.
Read our recent blog on the Best Rock Pickers here.
Benefit to Conrad Arnzen – North Idaho Farmer
