Steve Tomtene recently learned that a solution is on its way for one of his unfulfilled machinery needs.
The farmer from Birch Hills, Sask., didn’t know relief was in sight until last spring when John Deere approached him to test a prototype of the company’s latest and much anticipated high-horsepower tractor. The 9RX series is an articulated, four-track drive with up to 620 h.p.
“This was the one. I can see that it will pay for itself in efficiency, in hours saved and better use of that time, in operator comfort,” he said.
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Deere has since rolled a few trial models off its assembly line in Waterloo, Iowa.
“We’d tried some other tracked tractors, including the two-tracked ones. We pull some pretty big loads, the air seeders, around some difficult fields. They were great in straight line, when things were smooth,” Tomtene said.
“But we’re largely zero-till, so things aren’t smooth. And we have to navigate some pretty difficult water-on-both-sides roads when transporting the air seeders. Folks in our area have had some steering issues with tire tractors on some of those and a few have been dumped in the water.… I am really impressed with how well the tractor steers and handles.”
The biggest tractor issue on the 12,500 acre Tomtene Seed Farm was dealing with vertical tillage and anhydrous ammonia application, particularly speed limitations.
“We couldn’t ride it much faster than six or seven miles an hour. Too hard on the farmer,” he said.
“And the faster you go with the vertical tillage, the better the job those things usually do,.… The cab suspension and the way the tracks are set up meant we could increase our speed at least two, and often more, miles per hour. That’s 20 to 25 percent at a time of the year when we need every hour.
“Ok, a hundred more horsepower than our other tractors didn’t hurt either,” he said.
michael.raine@producer.com
