Farmers Increasingly Rely on Strategic Tillage Tools for Agronomic Needs
As more farmers incorporate tillage into their farm management practices to address specific agronomic needs, LEMKEN has unveiled its newest compact disc harrow, the Rubin 10.
The Rubin 10 completes LEMKEN’s versatile line of compact disc harrows, which has evolved over the past two decades to meet a broad range of strategic tillage needs facing Canadian farmers.
“As farmers critically assess the agronomic needs on their farms, we’re increasingly seeing them turn to strategic tillage to address many of those needs,” says Laurent Letzter, Managing Director of LEMKEN Canada. Letzter says he has seen strategic tillage used across Canada to resolve challenges such as:
• Mixing large volumes of organic matter evenly into the soil in one pass for efficient trash management while minimizing labor and fuel costs
• Mechanically killing weeds, including herbicide-resistant weeds
• Disrupting disease and pest cycles, and interrupting the evolution of fungicide resistance
• Encouraging weed seeds to germinate in the fall or before a pre-season herbicide application to maximize the effectiveness of the herbicide
• Improving soil structure and water infiltration
• Smoothing out ruts in fields to improve seeder and sprayer operation
• Breaking up pastures
• Managing the effect of severe weather variability by reclaiming land around potholes and sloughs
Intensive, Shallow Cultivation
Beginning with the launch of its first compact disc harrow, the Rubin 9 in 2001, LEMKEN has developed a full slate of compact disc harrows that allow farmers to perform intensive shallow cultivation at high working speeds in one pass to achieve uniform mixing of heavy organic matter in any soil type, crop, or farming system.
To answer a need for shallower stubble cultivation that also provides one-pass seedbed preparation in light and medium soils at a working depth of up to four inches, LEMKEN developed its popular Heliodor machine in 2005 with widths of up to 52 feet.
The need for a heavier machine that was capable of deeper cultivation in heavy soil and dense corn residue led to the Rubin 12 compact disc harrow in 2013 with its single-pass, 29-inch diameter discs and working depth of up to eight inches.
Rubin 10 Bridges the Gap Between the Heliodor and Rubin 12
As refinements were made over the years to the Heliodor and Rubin 12, LEMKEN began developing a new machine to replace the Rubin 9 – the anchor of LEMKEN’s compact disc line. Years of design and testing has resulted in a new machine that fully bridges the gap between the Heliodor and Rubin 12, creating a product line that can meet every farmer’s stubble cultivation needs.
While the Rubin 9 has sold 22,000 units worldwide, reflecting the strong demand for this mid-level compact disc, the new Rubin 10 exceeds the capabilities of the Rubin 9 and will replace it as LEMKEN’s mid-range compact disc when production begins in 2019.
Lower Fuel Costs; Longer Service Life
The Rubin 10 offers the same intensive uniform mixing as the Rubin 9 at shallow depths of up to 6 inches. It handles heavy trash more aggressively than the Rubin 9 with its bigger, stronger discs that measure 25 inches in diameter. It also delivers more efficient field performance with its new symmetrical disc arrangement on both sides of the machine, which eliminates lateral pull, ensuring the machine pulls straight and reducing fuel consumption. This disc arrangement was first mastered on the Rubin 12.
The Rubin 10 features surface-hardened DuraMaxx for a 30 per cent longer service life than conventional discs. Each disc is equipped with override protection that significantly minimizes frame loads when discs hit obstacles in the field.
The integrated harrow behind the first row of discs and the rear impact and leveling harrow improve the crumbling and distribution of soil and organic matter for an even, seedbed-ready finish. The Rubin 10 will replace the Rubin 9 when it begins production in January 2019.
“LEMKEN’s ongoing development of compact disc harrows and other strategic tillage tools continues to be driven by farmer demand for effective strategic tillage solutions that address agronomic challenges in a single pass while leaving the field seedbed ready,” says Letzter.
LEMKEN Announces New Acquisition
As LEMKEN continues pursuing new products and new solutions to help farmers operate more efficiently, the company has announced it has just acquired two divisions of the Dutch company, STEKETEE. With this recent acquisition, LEMKEN will be adding innovative hoeing technology for mechanical weed control to its product range, as well as advanced camera technology that enables these STEKETEE machines to hoe between the rows and between plants within a row.
“As the acceptance of chemical crop care agents decreases, and farmers grapple with the growing problem of herbicide-resistant weeds, the addition of the STEKETEE technology to LEMKEN’s product offering bolsters our company’s commitment to always provide farmers with the right strategic tillage machines to do the job effectively and efficiently, both now and into the future,” says Letzter.
Source : lemken