Equipment Focus: Kuhn reveals technique to minimise ploughing

Kuhn, like all implement producers, is nicely conscious that good crops start with good seedbeds of an applicable tilth and free from aggressive weeds.

Reaching that blissful scenario is, nonetheless, proving ever extra problematic as strain is being placed on farmers to scale back the quantity of whole soil inversion by means of not utilizing that mainstay of tillage farming, the mouldboard plough.

The scenario is difficult additional by the conflict being waged on herbicides, which have contributed a lot to making sure elevated crop yields through the years.

These two components have swung the main focus very a lot in the direction of contemplating the soil as a residing a part of the farm moderately than only a medium wherein crops will develop if sufficient inputs are thrown at it.

A great deal of innovation and improvement is required from equipment firms if meals manufacturing is to be maintained whereas disallowing these two instruments, and Kuhn Centre Eire lately placed on a tillage day in Co. Kildare the place it addressed the difficulty.

Very important position of plough

Regardless of the disdain for the plough held by those that information farming coverage, the implement continues to be an important a part of a farmer’s armoury and won’t be disappearing anytime quickly.

All main implement producers are of the opinion that it’ll nonetheless be wanted for varied conditions.

Kuhn itself is of the opinion that whole soil inversion will likely be required each 4 or 5 years to bury a build-up of trash and weeds.

To this finish, it’s nonetheless growing its vary of VM ploughs, the VM denoting variable width, and the foremost a part of the market is roofed by both the corporate’s 12 or 15 kind ploughs.

This determine denotes the scale, in centimetres, of the field part used on the head of the beam.

The variations upon this normal theme are numerous, however the firm means that an un-extended plough is bought to match the current tractor, it will possibly then be enlarged with an additional furrow or two if the tractor is upgraded.

Simplifying selection

Historically, the plough would have been adopted by discs or tines, usually each, to interrupt up the clods and put together the seedbed, however ploughing speeds have elevated which has decreased the requirement for following cultivations.

In Eire, Kuhn’s philosophy tends to view discs as appropriate for floor cultivation whereas heavy responsibility however adaptable tines must be known as into motion the place deeper working of the soil is known as for.

This readability helps to find a path by means of the multitude of cultivation programs which have appeared through the years, even those who dispense with the plough altogether, which inspires Kuhn to emphasize the flexibility of its merchandise.

Discs for the topsoil

Its Optimer L vary of discs is meant to work at 3-15 cm, depending on disc kind.

There are two sorts of 510mm discs accessible: A smaller notched model for a working depth all the way down to 6cm; a model with a bigger notch that may work all the way down to 10cm; whereas a 620mm disc, often called the Optimer XL, will run between 5-15cm.

The smaller discs will rotate sooner, including to the mechanical work being achieved on the soil, the bigger disc, nonetheless, provides higher mixing all the way down to a higher depth.

When the disc units had been put to work on a pea stubble, the shallower setting produced a superb stale seedbed however a deeper setting was required to dislodge grass weeds and volunteer cereals from a earlier crop.

Tines for depth

If deeper cultivation is required and the soil must be stirred, then Kuhn has two choices, the Cultimer vary of tined stubble cultivators, or the hybrid Performer fashions which mix discs and tines.

Billed as stubble cultivators within the brochure, the gross sales and advertising and marketing staff at Kuhn are desperate to level out that the Cultimer machines are a lot greater than that with versatility as soon as once more being the foremost power.

Working depth spans a formidable 3-35cm, from stale seedbed preparation to deep cultivation with thorough mixing of the soil and disruption of compacted layers.

In between, there may be the opportunity of straw incorporation to 15cm which will increase the soil straw contact space.

The break-back pressure on the tines is 600kg which helps, the corporate claims, keep a continuing working depth.

The tines are curved to advertise a greater stream and extra even mixing whereas non-obligatory carbide ideas scale back the conflict charge by round 80%.

Shallow work of between 3cm and 7cm is aided by the additional possibility of winged tines that are designed to slice by means of rooted weeds whereas encouraging weed seeds to germinate within the high horizon of the soil, leaving deeper seeds undisturbed.

Three-in-one

The Performer vary combines the working components of each the Optimer and Cultimer implements, offering a device for one-pass seedbed preparation.

The working depth of the disc and tine components may be altered independently of one another, permitting them for use alone or collectively, successfully giving three implements in a single.

Floor cultivation and deep soil mixing in a single move can require a great deal of effort and Kuhn advocate a 50-80hp/m for Performer fashions when it’s working each discs and tines on the identical time.

Wanting forward

With a turnover of €1.3 billion, the corporate claims to be the biggest agricultural implement producer on the earth, but, not like comparable firms, it has not put its title upon any mechanical weeders or a spread of ultra-shallow cultivators.

This may occasionally seem one thing of a gap within the portfolio, however when pressed on the topic the corporate’s export supervisor, Joachim Brossard, remained tight-lipped, suggesting solely that there’s at all times improvement work continuing on new merchandise.

There was not an terrible lot new on the tillage demo day in Athy, and little extra is promised for Agritechnica, so the suspicion stays that Kuhn could have some massive information subsequent yr and it could nicely embrace fully new tillage machines catering for this rising market.