Closing Discs Enhance Cultivator's Performance

Closing Discs Enhance Cultivator's Performance CULTIVATORS Cultivators (58C) 24-1-11 Willis Heitmann has always been able to cover a lot of ground in a day with his Deere 885 cultivator. But he notes, "If we used it when the soil was a little wet, the 16-in. sweeps left a glazed trail in our heavy clay soils." The sweeps would open up a slit that didn't close in damp soil. That allowed soil that was already smeared to dry that way. Heitmann was sure that cut into yields, particularly in dryland crops like grain sorghum and soybeans. He noticed, though, that this smearing and glazing didn't happen after sidedressing anhydrous. After looking at the equipment he realized that the biggest difference was that the anhydrous applicator was equipped with covering discs. So three years ago he took the covering discs from the anhydrous toolbar and mounted them behind the sweeps on one of his two 885 cultivators. The result was just what he'd hoped. With the discs throwing soil back over the slit left by the sweep, the soil didn't dry as fast or glaze over, either. At the same time he was solving this problem, though, Heitmann was still not quite satisfied with the weed control from his cultivator. "Our program for dryland crops is to band herbicides over the row, and then cultivate out the row middles," he says. "Originally, I had the closers pitched in on the cultivator, like they were for the anhydrous applicator. Last year, I turned them around, so instead of throwing soil back over the slit left by the cultivator sweep, they picked up the loose soil and threw it toward the crop row," he says. "The difference in weed control was amazing. Set this way, the closers not only threw soil toward the row, they completed the cultivating process by uprooting weeds loosened by the sweep. At the same time, they created a mulch layer over the slicked area that kept the soil from cracking after it dried out. "We had three weeks of wet weather after the 1998 wheat harvest, when we normally would have been cultivating," he continues. "When we could finally get into the fields to cultivate, redroot pigweed had filled in the area between the herbicide bands. It was taller than the milo. The cultivator with the closers on it gave us excellent weed control. Because of the mulch the cultivator left behind, the soil didn't dry out and crack. And our yields were about 110 bu. per acre. I know the weed pressure cost us something, but the most we could ever expect from dryland milo here is between 120 and 130 bu. per acre, so I'm pleased with the yield." Heitmann was so pleased with the results that in 1999 he bought a second set of closers so he doesn't have to move them back and forth between his anhydrous toolbar and the cultivator. Heitmann uses DMI closing discs because they're spring-loaded, allowing him to better control operating depth. "They have a 2-in. wide mounting bracket, which is the same size as the 885 cultivator sweep shank. This makes mounting them very easy," he says. He says if the closers were pitched right, they might be used to help furrow his flood-irrigated corn fields, too. "We've never had the problem with weeds in the irrigated ridges that we had in our dryland fields," he adds. Where he used them this year for dryland grain sorghum, he harvested 118 bu. per acre. "We had very limited rainfall during the growing season in Republic county," he says. He feels that the closing discs saved what little moisture was in the soil. "In past years, the cultivator would have left the soil open and it would have dried out." While this works well for Heitmann, he advises that the angle of the closers and cultivating speed need to be adjusted so that the right amount of soil is moved. "You may have to throttle back if the closers are pitched too sharp," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Willis Heitmann, R.R. 1, Box 64, Byron, Neb. 68325.

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