Anything new with ploughs?

[Sonoftheheir]

My Neanderthal brain was wondering if there’s anything new with ploughs? We currently have a 5 furrow slatted body in furrow Lemken Europal fitted with subsoilers. We use it with a furrow press.

If I was to replace it this year should I go with the same or is there anything better? Is it better with furrow cutting discs? Hydraulic width adjustment? In furrow or on top?

Thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Nearly]

+1 or wider furrows.
No point buying a brand new one. £££
Plenty of accountants out there selling good ploughs to buy fancy drills.

@Drillman

 

[PSQ]

I’ve got a very similar setup to you (5f Europal w/ trailed press and subsoiling spikes, manual variwidth @18”) and the only thing different with the replacement options are the prices

The only thing that might tempt me is an ‘on land’ option. The other thing that stands out is the lack of good ploughs available second hand, and those in dealers yards are significantly dearer than I paid new for mine…

 

[Phil P]

We have a Kuhn 5f muti-master on slatted boards and it’s been a very good plough. However it’s done a lot of work and getting a bit of headache now so I ordered a new Kuhn one back in July (should have come in September but still not here yet ).
It’s exactly the same except it’s hydraulic vari-width which should hopefully make a big difference on a mixture of soil types.
The old one had always been set to 14” until a couple of years ago when we set it to 16” and made far more of a difference to productivity than I was expecting! Only trouble is our plough tractor can now struggle sometimes on the heavier ground and especially pulling up slopes.
It’s a pita to alter the width manually though hence getting hydraulic width and we could probably plough at 18” on our lighter ground. It will also hopefully make a difference to transport width been able to narrow it down for on the road and if only adds 100kg to the weight of the plough.

Ps. We’ve also gone for a wider depth control wheel to help it stay afloat

 

[Drillman]

We went onland with a fresh plow this time.

basically the knackered old plough wouldn’t go with the newer mahoosive tractor we bought that came on 710 tyres

we use the GPS but do have to tinker with offsets a bit from field to field depending on soil type slope etc….

 

[alomy75]

We went onland with a fresh plow this time.

basically the knackered old plough wouldn’t go with the newer mahoosive tractor we bought that came on 710 tyres

we use the GPS but do have to tinker with offsets a bit from field to field depending on soil type slope etc….

Been some years since I ploughed anything on gps but I found if you set it on adaptive curve (in jd speak) and just leave it recording you don’t need to tinker with anything. That was after many days of trying (and failing) to fine tune the offset

 

[Drillman]

Been some years since I ploughed anything on gps but I found if you set it on adaptive curve (in jd speak) and just leave it recording you don’t need to tinker with anything. That was after many days of trying (and failing) to fine tune the offset

Our tractors are blue ones and I have all on to set an A-B line so anything more than that is well above my pay grade

 

[robbie]

My Neanderthal brain was wondering if there’s anything new with ploughs? We currently have a 5 furrow slatted body in furrow Lemken Europal fitted with subsoilers. We use it with a furrow press.

If I was to replace it this year should I go with the same or is there anything better? Is it better with furrow cutting discs? Hydraulic width adjustment? In furrow or on top?

Thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

I'd stick with Lemken. I assume your on the B45??? slats???? The newer slatted body is longer so will cope better with wider tyre.

Also stuck with a trailing press. A few round here have gone with the Lemken integrated press and while they do do a good job and the ground seems firm behind them, I don't think they firm the ground deeper down the profile. I've seen more MN deficiency on neighbours light ground since they've moved to an integrated press despite running a big DD press on the front of the drill tractor.

Another point that might be worth noting is a veg neighbour tried all different ploughs but stuck with lemken as they thought it the best at ploughing deep(14inchs) for veg.

 

[daveydiesel1]

We have a Kuhn 5f muti-master on slatted boards and it’s been a very good plough. However it’s done a lot of work and getting a bit of headache now so I ordered a new Kuhn one back in July (should have come in September but still not here yet ).
It’s exactly the same except it’s hydraulic vari-width which should hopefully make a big difference on a mixture of soil types.
The old one had always been set to 14” until a couple of years ago when we set it to 16” and made far more of a difference to productivity than I was expecting! Only trouble is our plough tractor can now struggle sometimes on the heavier ground and especially pulling up slopes.
It’s a pita to alter the width manually though hence getting hydraulic width and we could probably plough at 18” on our lighter ground. It will also hopefully make a difference to transport width been able to narrow it down for on the road and if only adds 100kg to the weight of the plough.

Ps. We’ve also gone for a wider depth control wheel to help it stay afloat

Does it close in every time you turn the plough over?

 

[Phil P]

Does it close in every time you turn the plough over?

I think/hope so, the current one sometimes catch the ground on uneven ground and stops it going over which is a pita as my plough man now in his 70’s doesn’t always notice straight away

 

[daveydiesel1]

I think/hope so, the current one sometimes catch the ground on uneven ground and stops it going over which is a pita as my plough man now in his 70’s doesn’t always notice straight away

Keep it very well greased as thats 1 area that will wear

 

[KB6930]

Keep it very well greased as thats 1 area that will wear

Vari width is all inside the beam on a kuhn so you can't get to any pivot points.

To the op hydraulic vari width is very handy for variable soil type if it's heavy land you can shut it in narrow so you're not dealing with massive slabs afterwards light land run wider to cover more ground and brilliant for finishing a headland.

 

[daveydiesel1]

Vari width is all inside the beam on a kuhn so you can't get to any pivot points.

To the op hydraulic vari width is very handy for variable soil type if it's heavy land you can shut it in narrow so you're not dealing with massive slabs afterwards light land run wider to cover more ground and brilliant for finishing a headland.

So does it not end up wearing as no grease points?

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Thanks everyone, would definitely stay with Lemken. I find it very difficult to keep straight going from clay hills into black peat in the hollows. Would a vary width help with that?

Can you get one that you can swap between in furrow and on top ploughing? I’d guess on top would be more expensive?

I’ve tried ploughing with greenstar this year, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Have to keep shifting over and then centring it again. Would hope it would work better on top?

 

[Sandy]

Thanks everyone, would definitely stay with Lemken. I find it very difficult to keep straight going from clay hills into black peat in the hollows. Would a vary width help with that?

Can you get one that you can swap between in furrow and on top ploughing? I’d guess on top would be more expensive?

I’ve tried ploughing with greenstar this year, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Have to keep shifting over and then centring it again. Would hope it would work better on top?

Yes onland and infurrow it’s not much more on a lemken for both

 

[davidroberts30]

So does it not end up wearing as no grease points?

Mine has done many acres before I got it ,yes there is wear but it's no biggy

 

[davidroberts30]

Thanks everyone, would definitely stay with Lemken. I find it very difficult to keep straight going from clay hills into black peat in the hollows. Would a vary width help with that?

Can you get one that you can swap between in furrow and on top ploughing? I’d guess on top would be more expensive?

I’ve tried ploughing with greenstar this year, but it just doesn’t seem to work. Have to keep shifting over and then centring it again. Would hope it would work better on top?

Did you actually measure the width the plough was cutting or just put in 5x 16s or whatever you were ploughing?

 

[fieldfarmer]

So does it not end up wearing as no grease points?

My khun does grease where the legs pivot to close and open but not the linkage that forces the move. Not gone sloppy yet.

 

[Chae1]

So does it not end up wearing as no grease points?

Our KV doesn't either.

Other benefit of vari width in challenging conditions like present you can open it up going downhill and shut it down going back up when struggling for grip.

 

[KB6930]

So does it not end up wearing as no grease points?

Nothing serious to be honest . There's some very old vari width kv ploughs out there still making a decent job.