[Fergy]

I'm producing high yielding cereals that just have too much straw for canola the next year. Therefore I am seriously looking at a Degelman Pro Till to go over my acres in the fall and/or spring. I've looked at others but this seems to be the right tool for the job. If I can't find one to buy I would like to rent one this fall.
Who has one and how do you like it?
What is better, rubber or cage roller?
TIA

 

[nicemustang]

How about a joker? I know where you can rent one of those to try, might not be far from you either...

 

[Andrew_D]

One of our employees rented a joker this spring for a bit of his land. Because it's 2 discs per gang, he had trouble with the one disc plugging from throwing dirt/mud into the bearing. (4 plugs on his 90 acres.) I like the machines that each discs has its' own bearing: Pro-Til, Lemken, etc. Having said that, a neighbour has a Gates Magnum which also has the 2 discs/gang and they had 0 plugs.

I agree that the pro-til looks nice...unfortunately the price isn't.

Side note: Another neighbour uses a VT machine (joker I think) instead of pre-seed spraying. Destroys germinating weeds. He sprays canola at 5-6 leaf and the weeds are tiny! By eliminating pre-seed spraying, he figures on paying for the joker in 2-3 years. And having cleaner fields to boot.

Andrew

 

[Fergy]

Side note: Another neighbour uses a VT machine (joker I think) instead of pre-seed spraying. Destroys germinating weeds. He sprays canola at 5-6 leaf and the weeds are tiny! By eliminating pre-seed spraying, he figures on paying for the joker in 2-3 years. And having cleaner fields to boot.

Andrew

How deep does he work the soil? 1 inch?

 

[Fergy]

nicemustang I sent you a pm

 

[randylahey]

We tried a pro till out this spring on some old pasture and it did an alright job had to work it twice to do a good job and we sank it 5 inches to try and bust the hard pan but the conservapaks did that after. For 150k it's a lot of money to fork out. I'm thinking a kello working disc would be good in worked fields and a big breaking disc in the grass. We have been fooling around to see which is good in the fields with straw as well and last year we baled all the fields where canola was going to be to get rid of the straw. Or light it with a match

 

[nicemustang]

Fergy I responded....

Funny you should mention light a match...they say not to do that and I wanted to on some oat straw (neighbours did it) dad said not a chance. I fought with my banders and they have a beautiful canola crop, mine is sub par. Should have went with the gut.

Another interesting point....we are extremely wet as a lot of places with canola and barley fairly poor to below average (some absolutely nothing) and where ever I fall banded we have an awesome crop. So I think we are going to do more of that this year. Some NH3 and some banding dry. Then I can save some wear on the banders next spring.

 

[CRToney]

My organic neighbour has a Protill. FarmerEllis is his handle on here. It leaves a smooth field finish.

It's too bad you want to burn the straw. I'd bale it all and take it off your hands for free. But the trucking would kill me.

 

[Andrew_D]

How deep does he work the soil? 1 inch?

Yup. 1" - 1.5".

Andrew

 

[w-mFarms]

we worked our corn field in spring didn't notice any difference in weed pressure where i left some wide strip, the wild oats was still as nice growing where we worked the field with the vertical tiller.

 

[STR1]

2013 sold today at RB Regina Auction for $110,000 CAD

 

[megrizzly]

Fergy, what are you doing to prepare for the canola crop. Are you harrowing, cultivating, applying fertilizer in the fall, spring work?

We have been playing around with what works and what doesn't. IMO, cereal crops require 2 passes consisting of either a chisel plow or heavy harrow and the NH3 pass. From a cereal to canola, peas, or flax, I will do 3-4 passes consisting of the chisel plow or heavy harrow and nh3 in the fall. In the spring is a field cultivator with sweeps and harrow packer after. Cannot beat the seed-bed, germination, etc.

IMO, whatever savings you get from not running the tractor or reducing tillage passes will go through the sprayer.


I would really like to see a few vertical tillage tools compared to other tillage operations in a variety of conditions before plunking down serious coin. The wider ones are very pricy and to find enough tractor to pull it. Hopefully mongo chimes in.

 

[Fergy]

Thanks for the replies.

For the last 10 years we have been putting all NH3 down in the fall. After the NH3 is applied we usually go in with the heavy harrow. Then in the spring we heavy harrow again and then seed. I guess I could go in with the cultivator later in the fall but thought a vertical tillage unit would chop up the straw more and work it in. Part of the problem is I wish my JD 9750 combine would chop the straw better. I had brand new knives last year and a new cutter bar in the chopper but with the heavy crops it just can't handle it. That being said my neighbours with bigger and newer combines looks almost the same. I just need to get that straw chopped up smaller and worked into the soil a bit. That way it can deteriorate better.

Some of you talked about burning the straw but I just can't do it. There is so many nutrients and soil health benefits of working the straw in. We have burned before and the black dirt totally improves the canola germination. So I understand why guys do it but thought I could achieve the same thing with some kind of tillage unit.

 

[jdstsman]

What blades do you have on your chopper? Is it a mix of paddles and straight blades?

 

[Fergy]

OEM knives (see picture)

 

[Fergy]

2013 sold today at RB Regina Auction for $110,000 CAD

Looks like a lot of depreciation for only being 1 year old.

 

[nicemustang]

The joker can work to a depth of 6" if I'm not mistaken. Requires lots of HP!

 

[jdstsman]

We run the same ones on our 9750 and 9760. I put a set of Redekop blades in a combine that I worked on this year. They looked pretty good. I'll know better how they worked after harvest.

 

[kipper]

We run a joker on all our silage corn acres in the spring before we plant. Takes out all the early weeds, levels and fluffs the soil. They do take fair bit of power, a lot depends on how deep you go. We worked a wheat stubble field also that was 18" tall and thick. One pass and we planted.

 

[Rampa]

I saw a demo of the Maschio UFO 20 ft in Albany, OR last week. It did a good job chopping and mixing wheat straw. It looked like a low maintenance machine, using oil bath bearings on the disc hubs instead of grease.