Andy Hayhurst of Vogelsang UK suggests that tillage could be made easier this season with strip-till technology, saying that the dry summer has brought renewed interest in the company’s XTill system.
“Strip till offers the opportunity to plant a variety of row crops with minimal soil disruption. This enables precious moisture to remain in the soil and be made more readily available to the establishing crop,” he says.
Seven models are available, starting with four rows and extending to 12, in working widths up to 6m. All are built around a parallelogram frame, with coulter blades, star-notched blades and ridging discs to cut and establish a strip for the seed. A double press wheel consolidates, while Vogelsang’s DosiMat distributors can be used to apply liquid manures.
“In the still hard soils caused by this year’s drought, the XTill offers the opportunity to make fewer passes and plant crops more efficiently. More importantly, the method is less disruptive because the uncultivated land between the strips remains intact, protecting soil biology and leaving plant residues that help maintain soil structure,” Andy adds.
The pneumatic VarioCrop enables precision planting at a constant tillage depth, linked to a depth adjustment system that provides nine depth settings which are manually selected at the rear of the machine.