Farmers Hot Line is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
Farmers Hot Line is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
Tillage is hardly a religious experience, but it is an essential step in achieving a good stand.
Discs, harrows, moldboards, cultivators, chisel plows, rippers, culti-packers…there are as many types of tillage tools as their are types of soil and tillage schemes.
Let’s learn about some of them:
GREAT PLAINS AG
The price-competitive LC40 Lister Cultivator combines a stack-fold toolbar with versatile parallel linkage row units. The parallel linkage and depth band coulters allow for precise depth gauging on individual rows. The row units can be configured to 30”, 36”, 38”, and 40” row spacings. Users can configure it as a lister or turn it into a row crop cultivator with rear sweeps.
A few additional benefits of the LC40 Lister Cultivator include:
Thicker mainframe walls for long-term durability
Laser cut depth gauges for precision seedbed preparation
Locking depth controls for planting accuracy
Wider depth gauging coulter mountings for added strength and durability
Great Plains Manufacturing Inc. | 785-823-3276 | www.greatplainsag.com
MANDAKO
Choose from a variety of sizes, we offer 13’, 20’, 27’, 33’ and even up to 40’! With the main frame being made of 6” x 6’ 1/2” steel, the Storm is designed to be STRONG and TOUGH!
Our unique “fold in” hinge system allows for outer wings to fold inside the main frame. This narrows the overall width for transport, making it easier and less stressful transporting the unit along today’s busy roads!
20” Soil Razor blades size and move material with ease. Optional 13W blades available for the true VT Experience!
Mandako | 888-525-5892 | www.mandako.com
LANDOLL
Landoll 6200 Series Tandem Disc Harrows are true multi-taskers. At home in high residue primary tillage applications as well as in secondary operations preparing a seedbed for planting, the 6200 Series from Landoll is the disc of choice. Features like the high ratio of weight per foot for penetration and cutting in the fall, as well as overlapping staggered gangs for exceptional leveling in the spring provide for use over two seasons. User-friendly adjustments allow the operator to fine tune the 6200 Series to meet the needs of the season.
Landoll Company, LLC | 800-428-5655 | www.landoll.com
SCHLAGEL
Designed to allow debris and wet soil to escape, Schlagel No-Till Gauge Wheels offer a significant performance increase in muddy soil. They also excel when used behind a fertilizer opener, as well as in no-till environments with very hard soil. Not only do our No-Till Gauge Wheels greatly reduce sidewall compaction, they also act as a rotary scraper (scraping outward from the center of the disk)—which allows seed openers and coulters to continue to turn in harsh conditions! When using Schlagel wheels in conjunction with any stock scraper, you’ll notice a massive and immediate boost in performance.
Schlagel | 888-889-1504 | www.schlagel.net
HINIKER
The practice of strip-tillage continues to gain acceptance with row crop farmers across the country. With the Hiniker strip-till solution you will realize the economic, agronomic and environmental benefits of this tillage method. Hiniker’s shank fractures the soil 5-9” deep while concave discs capture and place the disturbed soil into a berm directly over the tilled strip, creating an ideal seedbed. The raised berms produced with strip-tillage result in a warmer, dryer seedbed, allowing for earlier planting in heavy soils than other systems, notably no-till. In addition, compaction issues are reduced with the strip-till method as a result of fewer trips across the field.
Hiniker Company | 800-433-5620 | www.hiniker.com
SUMMERS
The Summers VRT Renegade might just be most versatile tillage tool available—a highly adjustable design with the ability to switch from minimal to aggressive tillage, and anywhere in between. Operators can control the blade angle, hydraulic hitch, tillage depth, gauge wheels, wing down pressure and rolling basket down pressure on the fly using an iPad with Summers iControl Implement Control technology. This unmatched flexibility allows the VRT Renegade to do the work of multiple implements, including vertical tillage and high-speed disks, as well as many other conventional tillage implements. And, it can fit into virtually all tillage programs.
Summers Manufacturing Inc. | 800-732-4392 | www.summersmfg.com
Healthier Soils Are Possible
In the midst of winter, plans start to focus on springtime activities. Too often we forget that the problems encountered in the previous growing season resulted from mistakes made in preparations of soil for planting.
Short-sightedness and commitments to schemes which are oblivious to requirements of the soil microbial eco-system lead to lackluster performance months, even years later.
A look at root system development is essential to proper diagnosis. Here is an example of roots which developed with hormones necessary for fine root hair development, a lack of anaerobic respiration leading to ethylene in the soil which would have produced shallow pancaked roots. Instead plenty of carboxylic acids to promote microbial colonization of the roots and adequate calcium have created the proper root system architecture.
Warming soil means that the microbial world is starting to work. Soil temperature increases throughout the depth of the plow layer are critical. More stored heat energy translates into more root system growth and colonization and thereby, total plant health and performance. The crux is how to facilitate this activity without destroying soil eco-system components that facilitate gas exchange, aggregate integrity, capillary water movement and leave the microbial communities intact.
Soil Regeneration Unlimited | 260-706-3133 | www.soilcursebuster.com
