PFG brand Great Plains is on the road with a comprehensive demo program for its Turbo Max vertical tiller.
Great Plains’ specialist, John Simpson said while the program had been travelling for over a month, the enquiry and interest level was still high, meaning demonstrations would continue for at least another few months.
“The Turbo Max is essentially a stubble management tool and we’ve got six or more of the demo machines running around at the moment between southern Queensland and in northern Victoria.
“All of the demos we have been doing has been in stubble straight out of crop - out of canola or barley with the farmer looking for a way to handle high residue loads, or weeds with summer rains.
The Great Plains Turbo Max allows adjustment of the disc cutting angle on the go - meaning a light till or deep penetration can be achieved.
The machine features a 19 cm blade spacing and hydraulically adjustable gang angle from 0 to 15 cm and continues to work in a vertical plane through all aspects of operation.
“If you just want a stubble chop you can keep everything pretty straight, but if you want to cut out weeds and create some tilth and level the paddock for seedbed preparation then you can make the angle more aggressive,” Mr Simpson said.
“A lot of farmers are using tined seeders and there is also now a tendency to bring their seeding row spacings back - some had been out to 12 to 15 cm and they are looking to come back to more conventional 8, 9 or 10 cm, and it can make it harder to sow through those narrower settings the following year.
The Turbo Max gives them the chance to knock the stubble down and chop it up so the can sow straight through with the seeder without blockages,” he said.
The machine comes out of the US and was designed to manage corn and maize residue which can reach 10 - 15 t/ha, Mr Simpson explained.
“We’ve had it in 7 or 8 t/ha wheat stubbles here so we are not going to have any troubles with it blocking and the stubbles here will be brittle as well.
“We are pitching it at the broadacre market - the machines we are looking to bring in are probably 7.5 m wide and up and they will need at least 300 hp (220 kW) to pull the smallest machine on the most aggressive setting,” he said.
Mr Simpson said most farmers understood the vertical tillage concept but said the machine offered not only residue management and seedbed preparation but also harnessed renovative capabilities to counter uneven fields caused by equipment tracks and better residue coverage to eliminate wind erosion
“In controlled traffic where you are running sprayers and spreaders up and down the same path you’ll get the ruts develop and this can pull that back in check,” Mr Simpson said.
Thus far, the demonstration program has created widespread interest, Mr Simpson reports.
“PFG has been handling the Turbo Max for the last 12 months but we have only started focussing on it in the last few weeks but there has been interest in all the the regions we have demonstrated them.
“With machines already on farm in northern NSW, and the comprehensive demo program underway, it's expected the enquiry will convert to orders,” Mr Simpson said.
Working the district around Deniliquin when Fairfax caught up with them, Great Plains was then heading to Moulamein and Swan Hill and on to the Riverina and the major field day circuit.
More information on the demo program is available by calling John Simpson on 0417 265 050.
