As well as loads of working cultivators and drills, the new Tillage-Live event offered a demo area and special working features on compaction, blackgrass control, spray container cleaning and controlled traffic farming. Farmers Weekly round up some of the new kit on show.

COUSINS V-FORM

Cousins of Emneth was displaying a prototype leg for its V-Form sub-soiler, designed for minimum surface disturbance when establishing oilseed rape. Developed with agronomy specialist Hutchinsons, the mini soil-loosening tine looks just like a standard winged leg, only shrunken to a quarter of its original size.

The reasoning behind this is that although conventional subsoilers might provide the ideal growing conditions for OSR, the surface heave they create stimulates weed seeds to germinate – blackgrass in particular.

By limiting this with a low-disturbance leg, weed issues are lessened and chemical inputs are reduced, a particularly important factor given that the issue of pesticides in watercourses is increasingly coming under the spotlight.

Cousins envisages customers swapping between conventional and “mini” V-Form legs, depending on the job being done. Once in production, it is expected they will cost significantly less than the standard tine.

On a 5-leg V-Form, with these new tines working at four to five inches, power requirement is reckoned to have dropped from some 250hp to just 120hp.

CLAYDON STRAW HARROW

Claydon’s straw harrow may not be brand new, but it’s certainly gaining popularity. The company sold just 10 units last year, but says that has jumped to 50 this year. The unit can travel at a Lotus Elise-rivalling 25kph, meaning 200 acres are possible in a day. The idea is that you work it at just 6-12mm depth, stirring up the stubble, digging in weed seeds (especially blackgrass) and breaking up the large lumps of straw which tend to harbour slugs. Then, a week later, you blast the newly-germinated weed seeds. It works well in rape stubbles, too, says the company, and allows volunteer rape to get to about 25mm height before re-harrowing it. This model is 7.5m wide and costs £12,500.

VADERSTAD SWIFT CULTIVATOR

This was the first public working demo for Vaderstad’s Swift stubble cultivator. It’s the first one from the Swedish firm that is built on a tubular frame and currently comes in 5.6m, 7.2m and 8.7m widths (though smaller 4m and 4.4m versions are coming). Vibrating spring tines do the main work, and can be fitted with 50mm points for deeper working or 80mm ones for regular work. These are followed by a set of levelling discs mounted in rubber suspensions that can be hydraulically set from the cab. Max depth is about 15cm and the 5.6m version (which is expected to be the most popular one) costs £27,720.

DOWDESWELL

Dowdeswell’s front and rear plough set-up drew a lot of attention at the event. But, though this is a prototype machine, the firm’s Richard Hicks says that if there’s enough interest they will put it into production. He adds that several farmers have said they would definitely buy one if it was available. Either 2, 3 or 4-furrow versions could be available. This 5 + 3 version gives the equivalent of an 8-furrow plough on a relatively modest 1,290hp tractor and the extra weight on the front helps traction.

RECO SULKY

Despite losing the Maschio range of power-harrows and cultivators earlier this year, Reco was demonstrating a full range of Sulky combination drills at Tillage Live. These seeders are fitted with the French firm’s own power-harrow, built by Frandent in Italy.

Reco says it will continue to market these machines as it has to a small extent over the last six years, but the company will shortly be bringing in the Brevi range of rotovators and power-harrows to bolster its offering.

The 3m Optiline Pro seen working here is one of Sulky’s heavy-duty combinations, kitted out with disc coulters to work at high speed in min-till conditions. List price is £30,950.

It was also the first working demo of Fendt’s newest offering – the 700 series. With its distinctive curved front screen, the new range currently runs from 200hp to 240hp and, while current 712s, 714s, 716s and 718s are still on offer, they too will be replaced by the end of the year. With 700s accounting for between 30-40% of Fendt’s UK sales, the company is pinning high hopes on this new model. Look out for our First Drive on it in the next couple of weeks.

AMAZONE GREENDRILL

Amazone now has its own air-seeder unit for growers wanting to establish rape and grass seed off the back of cultivators and sub-soilers. Previously the company offered a full-width seeder box but the lower cost of a pneumatic unit and the fact that there are no issues with ensuring seed is evenly levelled out across the full width of the hopper mean it is more popular with customers, according to the company. Like Opico’s Hatzenbichler seeders, it uses interchangeable fluted rollers to meter out seed and can run from rates of 1kg/ha up to 20kg/ha. Seen at Tillage-Live fitted to a tined pan-buster/power-harrow combination, the Greendrill costs £4,360 with electric radar-controlled metering.

PHILIP WATKINS TRI-DRILL

Philip Watkins’ mounted Tri-Till cultivator combines auto-reset sub-soiler tines with scalloped discs and a packer or press. In fact, the company now offers the choice of Simba’s Double-D rings, its own ridged packer roll or serrated Guttler press, which is said to give a finer finish when looking to establish oilseed rape. Compared to the firm’s heavyweight Quad-Till cultivator, which requires a minimum of 100hp/m, a 3m Tri-Till needs 150-200hp upfront to produce a decent one-pass finish. It costs £16,000.

KVERNELAND LO PLOUGH

Kverneland has beefed up its LO plough range, adding a toughened headstock, improved under-beam clearance and wider share spacing. New models are rated up to 350hp and 80cm ground clearance means faster operating speeds and less risk of trash blocking under the main beam.

Optional 100cm point spacing speeds operation further, but this lengthens the unit, meaning higher tractor lift capacity is required. Wider transport wheels are rated up to 40kph and they are available with both shear-bolt and auto-reset legs.

Prices start at £27,664 for the five-furrow manual to £37,189 for the full-spec seven-furrow vari-width with 100cm point spacing.

MASCHIO

Power harrow combination and tine drills from Italian manufacturer Maschio made their UK debut at Tillage-Live.

Brought in by new distributor Opico, the Alitalia combination drills will come in 3m or 4m variants and will be mounted on the packer roller rather than the power harrow headstock. Opico says this helps keep drilling depth even and allows the power harrow to move independently.

Primavera tine seeders are designed for mid-sized farms and will come with four rows of staggered coulters, generously spaced to prevent trash collecting. Basic models will come with mechanical metering, but electronic and full GPS options will also be available.

SIMBA GREAT PLAINS

Simba Great Plains’ SLD trailed and TL mounted tine cultivators were having their first public workout at Abingdon. The all-in-one SLD bridges the gap between the SOLO and SL models and is available in 4.6m and 6m working widths. Both models fold to 3m for road transport and are fitted with hydraulic brakes as standard.

The TL mounted cultivator is designed primarily for light-land work and comes with three rows of auto-reset tines, followed by covering discs and either a 550mm DD Lite or 540mm cage roller. Prices for the SLD start at £66,925 and the base TL model comes in at £11,495.

For more on Tillage Live 2011 see our dedicated web page.