In February, Salford claimed one of the industry’s coveted AE50 awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers for its Precision Row Crop Cultivator models.
The row-crop tillage models offer 12-, 16- and 24-row variants, which incorporate several new features that impressed the AE50 judges.
“The row crop cultivator is a little unique in the industry for a few reasons … one being its high productivity compared to other competitors. That means you can generally run the machine faster,” says Josh Kettle, Salford’s tillage product manager.
Read Also
Deere’s Tier 4 engines get B30 upgrade
John Deere has just announced it is increasing the biodiesel approval rating on its Final Tier 4 diesel engines from B20 to B30.
“One customer using our 12-row found they were more productive than using their existing 24-row. They were going three m.p.h. With the 12-row they were trying out, they were able to go over six. Depending on the conditions there are a lot of performance gains.”
The ability to run faster through the field comes from the cultivators’ two centring systems, which include both a camera and wand sensor.
During late-season tillage when the crop stand is higher, it can be difficult for camera systems to accurately locate the implement as tall plants sway in the wind. In those circumstances, an operator can manually select the wand system, which can accurately detect the base of the plants.
The implement connects to the tractor using a swing hitch that continually keeps the row units centred. The operator only has to concentrate on keeping the tractor between the rows.
“The cameras are mounted to the toolbar itself,” says Kettle.
“The toolbar side shifts up to 20 inches total travel. The operator can switch and choose which guidance method they’d like.
“It’s a turnkey system. There aren’t too many competitors that have an integrated slide hitch. They’d have to buy a slide hitch from another manufacturer and put them together, whereas this system is integrated.”
Each row unit has its own gauge wheel, so depth can be set independently on each one. There is also the ability to set a higher down pressure on the units following directly behind the tractor tires compared to the others.
“I haven’t seen a row crop unit in the industry with hydraulic down pressure,” Kettle adds.
“A lot are either spring or pneumatic with air bags.”
There is also section control to independently lift row units in accordance with a GPS map.
The Precision Row Crop Cultivators are available only with 30-inch row spacing.
