Drilling experiences and findings with Augur

Hello All,

I want to share with you my experiences and findings using augur to drill holes for plantation.

Equipment details

Equipment: Augur & drill bit
Vendor: Hitachi
Cost: About 40,000 (for both)

This was the marketing pitch and requirements:

keep land 30% wet
should drill hole up to 1.5 to 2 ft in about 15 to 30 secs

My findings

Soil type: Red sandy soil
Hole when soil was partially wet : drilled hole upto 1.5 ft in about 30 secs
Hole when soil was quite wet: drilled hole upto 1.5 ft in little under 15 secs

Marketing pitch did hold up. Yay!

Economics findings

Since I was making a sizable investment, I wanted to check if my projections were correct or not.

Digging holes manually : A healthy male with little under 3 hours of day work dug holes manually using an iron rod (gunapam) in a dry to little moist soil. I measured his timings across 4 holes - digging and clearing up the soil when digging upto 4 holes took close to 15 minutes. Since it is a human, the equation would not be linear and times would begin to increase as day progresses.

We were planning to dig about 7 to 8 thousand pits across the farm.

Given the data, it might little fun for you to crunch the numbers along with labor costs and see if the investment was worth it or not.

By the way, it dug the pits over the farm like a charm. We were digging holes after it rained and the soil was moist enough. We held off when it was not moist enough.

In addition, 1.5 to 2 ft deep pits are not required for many plantations and 6 inches deep is about right. We dug holes for sowing drumstick seeds to about this depth. In this case it takes more time to move the equipment from hole to hole than the actual digging. Nice!

@Biju - If you have not already dug your pits, definitely take a look at this nice equipment.

Goes without saying, these are my findings and my takeaways. Please do your due diligence and judgement to arrive at your decision in case you decide to purchase this equipment.

Unfortunately I was not able to capture much photos, video. I have attached the picture of a pit dug using the equipment.

Happy farming. Jai Hind.

Raj


Hello Raj,

Thanks for sharing the info.

Just curious how is the fuel efficiency? For example, how much fuel would it require to operate an hour or to dig 1000 pits?

Thanks
Biju

Dear Biju,

Fuel consumption would vary depending upon the Wetness of soil

In our case, in red sandy soil with moistness on the lower end we were getting about 2 hours of operation in one filling (1 Litre).

I personally like the equipment, the staff were also excited about it and this reflected in the work that they were doing with it.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Raj

Raj,

Could you please post a few more pictures including something with the Augur in action.

Thanks!

Hi Prakruti,

Very nice information… Can you give some more information about

  1. The model of the instrument
  2. The HP of the engine
  3. drill bit diameter & depth
  4. how many holes per liter of petrol
  5. is there any subsidy?
  6. any maintenance cost in terms of sharpening the drill bit or overhauling the engine etc.

Regards,
agri_lover

Hello,

@airfoil - Unfortunately I do not have more pictures of the equipment, contact the hitachi sales representative and ask him to send photos and videos to you. I think they have a presence in Hyderabad, you could even potentially see the equipment in the showroom. Look in outdoor power equipment shops if the Hitachi showroom is not present.

@agri_lover
Please look at this brochure hitachi-koki.in/OPE%20Catalogue.pdf
DA-200E(S) is the model. Brochure has all the details.
Drill bit is 8inches in diameter.
I did not count the number of holes per litre, it depends quite a bit on the dampness of the soil. Excessive dampness slows down the process as well as you have keep clearing the mud.
I did not look in to the subsidy aspect. However, I think you can get subsidy per one power equipment, please look into it.
Since we procured the equipment not too long ago, I cannot comment on the maintenance aspect as we have not encountered it yet.

Hope that helps.

Jai Hind
Raj

Hi Prakruti,

Thanks for providing the information. I had yet another query. is 8 inch drill hole ok for plantation? would it hold sufficient space for manure and other necessary packing.

Regards,
agri_lover

I think it might be sufficient for most cases. However, if you need more area then you would have to drill additional holes accordingly, which is not much of a hassle with this equipment. We planted moringa in pits dug by this with no issues.

Jai Hind
Raj