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Pull-Type Rod Weeder Converted To 2-Pt. Model
Darry Markle, Claresholm, Alberta, recently sent FARM SHOW photos of an old 10-ft. wide Deere pull-type rod weeder he converted to an 8-ft. wide 2-pt. hitch model.
    “I use it to control weeds and grass between rows of trees in my farm’s shelter belt. I want to make sure any rain we get goes to the trees and not the weeds,” says Markle. “Weeds really don’t like this machine. I use a 30-hp. 4-WD tractor to pull it.”
    He got the 1960’s ground-driven rod weeder from a neighbor. It was equipped with a drawbar hitch and a pair of big lugged wheels on front, with a pair of caster wheels on back. He removed the hitch and had a local machine shop cut the rig’s front shaft axle down to 8 ft. and also cut new keyways into the axle. Then he welded a pair of steel brackets fitted with pins on the front of the machine’s frame, which hook up to the lift arms on his tractor’s 3-pt. hitch. He also gave the machine a new coat of paint.    
    “The rod weeder is equipped with a hand-operated depth control lever on the back. The operator had to get off the tractor to lift the machine out of the ground,” says Markle. “By converting the rig to a 2-pt. hitch model, I can just set the depth control lever to the proper working depth and leave it there, and then at the end of the row use the 2-pt. hitch to lift the machine out of the ground. As I turn, the rod weeder pivots on the caster wheels to follow the tractor. I didn’t convert the machine to a 3-pt. model because it would have been too heavy for a small tractor like mine.
    “I had been using an 8-ft. wide 3-pt. mounted field cultivator to control weeds in the shelterbelt, but it killed only about 70 percent of the weeds. My rod weeder pulls weeds completely out of the ground and then lays them back down so they haven’t got a chance to grow back again. It results in close to a 100 percent kill. I still use the cultivator occasionally to loosen the soil and keep it from getting packed down too hard.”
    Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Darry Markle, P.O. Box 2199, Claresholm, Alberta, Canada T0L 0T0 (ph 403-489-1956; darrymarkle@gmail.com).



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2017 - Volume #41, Issue #1