The revolutionary Slashbuster mulching machine has arrived in New Zealand. We are now just days away from fitting this to one of our all-terrain diggers and offering this new faster mulching service to our clients.

The Slashbuster works in a different way to most mulchers. It features a rotating disk that eats and destroys anything it touches – from gorse and standing trees to cars and houses.

There is no better way to show you how this brilliant mulching head works than to show you the video below.

If you need your paddocks mulched then please call us today. The Slashbuster provides an easy and quick solution to bring added value to unproductive land. Because no chemicals are used, we can mulch your paddocks today and you can start grazing livestock on the land straight away.

If you are have a slice of gorse-ridden land on the market, then removing the gorse will not only make the land look a million times better, it will help sell it more quickly and for a higher price.

Call us today and let us help add value to your land with the Slashbuster.

The Slashbuster uses a novel rotating head that tears through anything it touches – from weeds to cars and  houses.

Ken Borg, who ordered the Slashbuster in August says he can’t wait to get his hands on the machine because he’ll be able to clear paddocks of weeds much faster than before.

“A lot of time can be wasted with traditional mulching heads as they can get get jammed up with discarded wire fencing that you often come across in paddocks,” says Ken.

“But this new style of mulcher – the Slashbuster – spins in a circle and has a wire cutter built in – so down time is cut to a minimum.

“We’ll be able to clear paddocks a lot faster, which means a lot less waiting time for our clients.”

The Slashbuster digger attachments can handle almost any task – check the Slashbuster website to see how a car can be destroyed in seconds.

See www.Slashbuster.co.nz for full details.

Slashbuster is the brand name for a range of brush cutter products made by D&M Machine Ltd in Montesano, Wisconsin, USA.

Ken Borg says: “I started my search some months ago to secure some top end equipment for the All About Earth Moving company and came across the Slashbuster range of products.

“After visiting the company to see its factory and products, I approached them to become their exclusive reseller for New Zealand and the Pacific islands.”

Following months of negotiations, Ken sealed the deal in August [2011] and is now marketing D&M’s range of Slashbuster products across New Zealand and beyond.

The Slashbuster digger attachments can handle almost any task – from mulching gorse to destroying a whole house – check the Slashbuster.co.nz website to see how a car can be destroyed in seconds.

See www.Slashbuster.co.nz for full details.

Our new mulcher can also demolish a house to pieces in an hour!

All About Earth Moving is looking for key contractors all over New Zealand to join us for the start of our next season – October/November.

Read on or fill out the form here to find out more.

Who is a key contractor?

• Existing large earthmoving firms with 10 to 20 employees.
• Existing large tractor contractors.
• Someone who is well known to their local farming sector or similar, who is looking for a change in business or to add to their existing business.

The key to the success of this new opportunity is to already have a great customer base to tap into through your existing business.

More than 90% of farms have some sort of noxious weed problem with half having a weed problem that is out of control. You can offer them a fast solution to solve this.

All About Earth Moving’s new specialised machinery can get to areas that tractors and similar types of machinery just can’t get to. Our machines can go where normal diggers cannot.

With you already having a working relationship with existing clients you can now offer this new profitable service to them.

The great thing about being a part of All About Earth Moving is you will be joining a large franchise-based business with 60 to 70 other franchises across New Zealand.

The benefits are in the marketing.

TV, New Zealand Herald and key farming papers/magazines, on a nationwide scale, along with national contracts.

Our nationwide advertising means we are able to fulfil these contracts anywhere in New Zealand.

If you want to be a part of the All About Earth Moving success, and you would like to know more, then please fill in the questionnaire about yourself and your existing business.

Please fill out the form by clicking HERE.

Needless to say, confidentiality is assured.

I look forward to speaking with you

Ken Borg

Director – All About Earth Moving

I went there on a fact finding mission to check out the Valmet 430FXL self-leveling, Feller – Buncher machines and a new monster mulcher that could turn a house into small mulch within hours.

Yes, although I went to Redding to look at this new super mulcher I had heard so much about, it turns out it actually can destroy a house. It just eats through wood, metal, glass, tiles and brick!

It worked so well on the demonstrations I saw that I just had to have it. It is being especially built for me right now and will be shipped out in time for our next season which start in October.

Once it gets here, together with the new self-levelling digger, All About Earth Moving will be able to take on any job. It really will be a case of no job too big.

The monster mulcher could even mean the days of spending weeks pulling down old houses are gone – great for property developers. I’ll be able to drive in and mulch it to bits in minutes. Then, we can easily load the fragments onto the back of a truck for disposal at the tip. Quick and easy.

The new digger will also come into its own too.

There are some steep areas around Auckland / Northland and while the current machine has never let me down, this new one will be able to handle any terrain in its stride.

No matter how steep the hill, the driver’s cab will remain level – which means no more spilt drinks when I am working.

I have been back a few days now and have just about caught up with my sleep. Long distance travel and me just don’t get on.

But, keep your eyes on this site as photos and video of the new beasts will be loaded soon.

Cheers for now.

Ken.

Transforming paddocks from unusable eyesores into great looking areas that help pay for themselves is keeping Ken Borg  busy.

Ken has been in business since 1997 as a qualified builder and started All About Earth Moving 2005 to offer clients a range of land enhancement services.

The purchase of an $80,000 mulching attachment to his digger gave the company an edge and led the company into a whole new area of land clearing services.

The firm’s go-anywhere digger is able to clear acres of gorse, long grass and noxious weeds in a matter of hours.

“Land is expensive and so owners need to make every inch pay for itself,” says Ken. “Whether they want to increase grazing land for their cattle or increase the land’s resale value, removing unwanted shrubbery such as gorse can make a big difference.”
All About Earth Moving’s services really is a case of ‘no job too big’ as its machinery is able to access any gradient and plough into gorse the size of trees – and mulch it down to nothing.

“The mulcher is very powerful and can turn gorse into tiny fragments,” says Ken. “Getting good results is far quicker than spraying which can take months to kill gorse. Even after gorse is dead, it still sits on the land looking brown and horrible – it can take years to deteriorate and break down.
“Using the mulcher gives an instant result, the gorse is there one moment and gone the next.”

Mulching gorse saves on using expensive and dangerous chemical sprays too, says Ken.

“There is a place for spraying gorse because we all know that this is a hardy weed that doesn’t die easily,” says Ken. “Gorse seeds can live in the ground for up to 50 years – so the best anyone can do is manage the problem.”

Ken recommends people save money by using a selective spray on gorse re-sprouting that may appear the following season after the machine has been over the land.

“Gorse can really choke up the land, so by removing it we give grass a chance to grow,” says Ken. “Of course, gorse may begin to sprout in time, so we recommend the land owner keep an eye on this and perform targeted spraying when required, normally the following season.

“This saves a fortune in chemicals and is better for the land. Mass spraying of large areas is not something I would recommend as it can also take out native bush that you are trying to keep.

“Mulching breaks up the gorse so it rots down and puts nutrients into the soil to promote grass growth, the mulch also stops soil run off when it rains.
Ken says real estate agents value the work his firm does as removing gorse increases the chances of land being sold.

“Real estate agents know we can make land far more attractive and sellable – after all – who wants to buy land covered in acres of gorse and other noxious weeds?

“What we can offer people is a very quick way to add value to their land. So it is a perfect solution for land owners who need to free land up for grazing live stock.”
Apart from gorse, All About Earth Moving can remove all sorts of noxious weeds on steep hills, including trees still standing in place down to ground level.

“Using track grips fitted to our digger means our machinery can go anywhere,” says Ken. ”And while long grass may not be such a big problem during winter, in summer it can be a fire hazard. We can remove it quickly and easily and give landowners peace of mind.”

Some people find it hard to understand what an effective job the company’s machinery can do.

“So we had a video made so people can see with their own eyes how we can transform a paddock in hours – anyone can watch it on our website,” says Ken.

Using such powerful machinery, health and safety comes first, second and third for Ken. “The safety of people, livestock and property is the top priority for us,” he says. “We understand we are working on other people’s land with very powerful machinery. So health and safety is a priority.”

Naturally, the company is fully insured so landowners can be confident that if anything untoward did happen on site, they will not be left out of pocket.

“Our business is built on our reputation, people trust us and building on that trust is very important to me personally,” says Ken.

Report by Neville Walker

Clearing scrub in difficult terrain with his excavator, Ken Borg of All About Earth Moving wouldn’t be without his TrackGrips.

Spotting the idea in an industry magazine Ken, early adopter that he is, saw that the device would help him finish jobs more quickly and produce a better result. More on that in a moment …

Ken Borg with his Mulching digger

A while back, before Ken knew about TrackGrip, I was taking video footage of him and his crew clearing gorse from a Kumeu farm, focusing on his excavator’s mulching head in action. I was almost mesmerized, seeing the 22 tonne excavator manoeuvre around the steep gully to get at the gorse sitting high up on the steeper slopes.

At that stage of the year the dry ground was still recovering from the drought and it was impressive seeing how the machine could crawl its way up and reach right in with its mechanical mulching head to remove the gorse and scrub in a surgical manner.

The farm, which had only recently been acquired by the Mertons, had a lot of gorse and scrub covering the hills and choking the productivity of the landscape. When I asked Peter Merton why he had opted for mechanical clearing, he explained they had sprayed the gorse initially but, because of the terrain, brought in Ken because his mulching gear could eradicate the gorse and scrub quite quickly, allowing over-sowing. Also, Ken could be selective, targeting the stuff they wanted gone and leaving any good vegetation standing.

While Ken and I stood watching the progress, the excavator was busy making an assault on scrub up near the ridge we were standing on when it suddenly swung around and raced off back down the gully, all the way to the bottom. “Hmmm,” Ken said, “he hasn’t finished here, what’s he up to…?” After returning to the top, the operator explained the machine had lost traction and he’d had to run with it until he found enough traction to bring the machine back under control. Excavators don’t have anti-lock and they do slip around on their tracks quite a bit.

Fast forward to this year’s Field Days at Mystery Creek, where I found John Burling inside the Innovation Tent with one of his brain-children, the TrackGrip. (I say ‘children’ because, as it turns out, the TrackGrip is just one of John’s successful inventions.)

As John described to me how TrackGrip improves traction for any tracked vehicle such as excavators and bulldozers, I thought about the run-away excavator, and of how Ken’s digger could have done with a bit of extra traction that day at Kumeu.

John explained that the idea behind TrackGrip came to him when he was working on preparing an industrial park building site. His 20 tonne digger was slipping, eventually becoming semi-stuck, and he noticed how a quarter round post trapped under the tracks would roll under the tracks until it caught an edge and gripped.

John got out of his cab, looked at the post and tracks for a while, and thought, ‘Maybe I could get something like that fixed to the tracks and gripping …?’ It was an idea similar to applications like snow chains on trucks or cars, or even sprigs on a footy boot.

John went to work making a prototype. The next step was to find a way of fixing the cleats to the tracks so they wouldn’t come unstuck. With trial and error he hit upon the design that allowed the TrackGrip to clamp around the track and grip to the links like a vice.

The design has proved to be a winner, and one which neither John nor anyone else has found a floor with yet. John has extended the idea and modified it for applications in extreme environments such as forestry and ice-covered terrain. After the launch at Field Days, John is now fielding calls from manufacturers and tracked equipment owners the world over.

So what are TrackGrips like from an operator’s experience. Would they offer a significant improvement? Ken Borg was previously using another variety of traction cleat on his machine and I asked him for his impressions of the TrackGrip. “The traction is just phenomenal. At the end of the first day’s use I was totally convinced”, Ken reported.

He added that he was able to reach places to clear scrub he wouldn’t even contemplate prior. The other huge benefit was that it enabled incredible sideways traction, allowing him to manoeuvre and move safely across sloping terrain. Before using TrackGrips, clearing land of scrub and gorse meant he was often having to cope with the instability of topsoil, making it too easy for the machine to slide sideways.

As Ken points out, not only is he now able to work more quickly, he can now safely work longer in wet conditions. This gives him a competitive advantage. Before, his machine would lie idle, waiting days for the ground to dry out. Now, no scrub or gorse is safe!

© 2010 Rodney’s Rural Lifestyle Magazine – www.RuralLifestyle.co.nz