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| I appreciate the responses a while back when I asked about the Salford RTS.
I am seriously considering moving from conventional tillage to a vertical system. I thought I knew what I wanted to do (use a "chopper" type coulter tool such as the RTS or Turbo-till, etc.) but am now reconsidering. What about the McFarlan Reel-till or the To The Max?
I am running a corn-soy rotation, with some winter wheat-double-crop beans thrown in. Yield potential of our soil is 200 bu. corn. Soils are low OM, with high clay in some areas. I would like to "till" in the fall with one of these tools, and also use it in the spring if needed to aid in soil drying.
I'm told that to get the coulter tools to work properly, they need to be run 3 to 5 inches, wheras the reel-tills only work 1 inch and maintain the soil structure at seeding depth.
It looks to me that ideally the coulter tools would be the best for fall corn stalks, and the reel-tills would be best for spring work. With the price tags on these things, that ain't gonna happen. What would be the best compromise?
The reel-tills are a little less pricey and very fast per HP. It looks like maintenance issues would be comparable, or a little in favor of the reel-till.
Are the reel-tills aggressive enough in the fall, even when the soil gets a little hard? Are the coulter tools too aggressive in the spring, disturbing the soil too deep, or causing "chunking" when the soil is crusted? Or am I way off base on all my thoughts?
Thanks.
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vertical tillage and equipment
