BRANDON – The German-built Amazone Catros is engineered to handle the ultra-high crop residue cover European farmers regularly face.
However, the time has come for the Catros to get to work on Canadian farms, says Paul Degelman of Degelman Industries in Regina.
“This is a high-speed, single-pass surface tillage system designed to manage high corn residue and high cereal crop residue in zero till,” Degelman said.
“It’s for any situation where you cannot pull off zero till because there’s too much residue. It’s mainly for corn, but it’s becoming more relevant in wheat, too. There’s areas now in Alberta and Washington state where they regularly get 100 bushel wheat crops. They cannot zero till back into that residue. It’s a real problem for them.”
Read Also

VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
The prospect of regular 100 bu. winter wheat crops is also becoming more likely in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Degelman said speed is important in making the Catros work properly.
“It’s designed to work at 10 mph. With that higher speed, it does a more aggressive job of incorporating soil into your chopped residue,” he said.
“As soon as your combine leaves the field, you go in immediately with the Catros. Get the soil and chopped stalks mixed together so things start decomposing right away.”
The Catros has two rows of concave discs running at opposing angles. The two rows can easily be adjusted left to right with a square eccentric pin to ensure they always cover the full working area.
The discs are not supposed to work deep into the surface. The company suggests they should always be adjusted to work as shallow as possible.
The discs are positioned close together. Each is individually mounted in a rubber torsion suspension box, similar to that used in trailer suspensions. The rubber suspension allows fast ground speed without inflicting damage to the discs or the machine’s frame.
The packers, called wedge ring rollers, are also mounted close to each other. From a distance, they look like a conventional prairie field roller.
“It’s a ribbed rubber packer. The ribs leave some loose soil to allow moisture into the soil. And the rubber sheds the soil, so they run clean all the time,” Degelman said.
“They leave you with a nice firm seedbed, ready to go in the spring. If you have time to hit it once again in the spring, so much the better, but it’s not necessary.
“The whole trick to the Catros is high intensity surface tillage to manage residue. Then follow immediately with packers to consolidate the soil and residue. That leaves your soil surface ready for seeding.”
Degelman said the Catros units his company imports are three and four metres wide. They can be mounted individually on a three-point hitch or towed as single or double units.
To obtain sizes more appropriate for the Prairies, they can also be coupled with a special gang system built by Degelman.
“In Eastern Canada where they have smaller fields and more odd shaped fields, they cover more acres per day with a smaller unit. The four metre wide Catros is quite popular with corn growers there.
“For bigger fields and high volume wheat like we see on the Prairies, we can gang them together to make a 40 foot wide machine.”
A single four-metre Catros unit sells for $27,000.
For more information, contact Paul Degelman at 306-543-4447 or visit www.degelman.com.