New offerings are designed to manage heavy residue in demanding conditions and deal with minimum till compaction challenges
John Deere announced in late August that it was expanding its line of tillage tools with the introduction of the Coulter Chisel CC and Minimum Tillage MT implements.
They were first introduced to the public this year at the U.S. Farm Progress Show in Iowa.
“The Coulter Chisel has coulters up front followed by chisel points and followed by a finishing system on the back,” says Michael Porter, Deere’s go-to-market manager for tillage tools.
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“The coulters are really going to help size up residue. The chisel points are then going to pin and bury that debris underground to help it break down over the winter time as well as break up compaction.
“It’s designed to be highly productive in that six- to 10-inch range, ideally seven m.p.h. at seven inches deep.”
Five CC models are available with 11, 13, 19, 21 or 25 shanks on 15-inch spacing.
“The tool is packed with a lot of technology,” he adds.
“The first being TruSet Active. TruSet technology is where you set a depth of tillage you’re targeting, and the tool and technology is going to manage it to keep it at that depth. It has an eye sensor at the front that is constantly measuring the distance between the (frame) bar and the ground, so it always knows how deep this tillage tool is. So if you get into a soft spot and the tool starts to sink deeper, it’ll bring the tool up. Or in heavy muddy conditions where mud is building up on the tires, it’ll lower the tool to compensate for the increase in diameter.”
The CC will also be available from the factory completely autonomy ready.
“That means it will come with all the necessary hardware, software, harnesses, lighting,” he says.
“You just need to add a StarFire receiver. Hook it to our autonomous tractor offering and you’re able to do autonomous tillage.”
The MT implement replaces Deere’s existing 2100 Series inline ripper, designed to break up compaction at depth with minimum disruption to the field surface.
“The MT Series stands for minimum till,” says Porter.
“So really going as deep as possible to break up compaction layers, the hardpan, without disturbing the soil. The (model) number stands for the number of points that are spread 30 inches apart. We’re producing an MT 5, 7, and 11.”
The MT models will also be available with Deere’s TruSet Active technology, and they will have shanks with a 50 per cent longer wear life than those on the 2100.
