Wednesday November 6, 2013

Day sixteen..

Break over, back to work slash the classroom!

So, now that we are all masters of tractor engines, it was time to take it up a gear and move on to what comes next!?!? The clutch and the gearbox..

The clutch separates the gears from the engine but works in conjunction with the gearbox - selecting the correct gear for the task, by way of the required amount of power. Power being a combination of speed and torque (the turning force <- learn this word and meaning!) and is the rate at which energy is converted in to work.

Power is measured in watts or kilowatts or horse power as it was known, therefore 1 hp = 0.76kw. Torque is measured in Nm (Newton metres) whereby 1m to 1kg = 1 Nm. Torque peaks at low engine speeds and power at high engine speeds (the techy info!)

We then moved on to the different transmissions; pneumatic, electric, hydraulic and mechanical and how these systems work around the tractor and what they do :-

Electric - lights, motors, switches, solenoids, batteries, monitors (typical tractor battery 12v DC)
Hydraulic - three point linkage, tipping etc
Mechanical - PTO (power take off), fan belt, timing chain etc
Pneumatic - less popular in agricultural machinery, but could be used to put air in tyres for example

After a morning of theory we went off to our afternoon practicals, today we went to check the 'fat lambs' (those being prepped for lamb packs). The sheep were herded in to the penning system - despite dex the dogs attempts to chase them all away! The ewe lambs were given a quick health check and any dags removed - remember what that is.. The rather poopey clogged up dirty bums! Not a nice job but someone's gotta do it right! They were turned away and the remainder were then checked by Dom to see if they passed the fat lamb test - feel across the back and tail test, if lucky (!) these were marked and also then health checked and dags removed, ready for the inevitable!

Dom will keep an eye on one of these lambs as it was lame, and you can't send a lame lamb to slaughter (it could be deemed that there is an infection, and that this has spread up the leg and possibly further). So it's feet were trimmed as they were pretty overgrown and hopefully this will ease it's walking.

Back at the workshop the equipment was washed, clippers and trimmers, and greased ready for next time (a good shepherd looks after his tools). Another day done.