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Tips for Vertical Tillage Tools. What works best on your farm?

Buyer’s Tips for Vertical Tillage Tools

By Peter Gredig.

Information on the following Tillage Tools can be found at www.buyersguide.farms.com.

Salford RTS
TillTech Twister
Great Plains Turbo Till
Smart Till
...

Vertical tillage is a term that is being used to describe a fairly wide range of implements. Some of these tools perform very light tillage, with residue management and incorporation as the primary objective. Other tools provide more aggressive tillage. Our sponsors offer the following tips for producers who are looking to find the right vertical tillage tool for their operation

It’s important to understand what each vertical tillage tool offers in terms of depth of tillage, level of soil disturbance, and flexibility to perform in different conditions. Producers also need to identify what they hope to achieve with a vertical tillage tool. This includes determining whether the implement will be used in the fall or spring or both, the kind and amount of crop residue present, the depth of tillage required, and what the ultimate goal is. The good news for prospective buyers is that most manufacturers are motivated to let producers “try before they buy” because this kind of tillage is different from what we’ve done in the past. You can learn a lot in a short period of time with a demo unit.

Horsepower requirements vary between vertical tillage tools. Many of the products are meant to run at a shallow depth, which suggests lower horsepower requirements than would be necessary for a field cultivator or primary tillage tool, but speed is the wildcard. Many vertical tillage operations call for high field speeds of 8 to 10 mph, which can eat up horsepower. You may be surprised at how much power it takes to do very shallow tillage at a high rate of speed.

If field leveling is an objective, many of the vertical tillage implements offer various leveling attachments to smooth out residue clumps and leave the soil surface as level as possible. This is critical if the next pass is with the planter or seeder.

The number of vertical tillage tools on the market is expanding as an increasing number of farmers experiment with this concept. If you have experience with vertical tillage, we welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions at Peter.Gredig@Farms.com

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