Tillage Day 2018 — The Best of the Best

MT Auburn hosted another successful Tillage Day this year, demoing four separate pieces of tillage equipment. As always, we love putting on this event and giving you the opportunity to get hands-on time with the equipment we sell. In case you couldn't make it, we've rounded up the highlights from the event, including expert opinions on each piece.

One of our most universal tillage tools, the 335 VT is marketed as a vertical tillage piece. Capable of maintaining its presence in a variety of conditions, it universally mixes soil with residue while leaving a smooth floor underneath the top 2-3 inches of tilled ground. It achieves this with an 18° gang angle, lifting and mixing soil and residue, followed up with straight blades to smooth the floor, something concave disk blades cannot achieve. This unit works well in sod, wheat stubble, soybean stubble, corn and with manure incorporation.

A heavyweight contender, the Case IH 875 excels in heavy residue with high compaction. Equipped with independent front disk gains to mix and rip residue, it also includes deep till shanks meant to fracture soil and hard pan. Combined, the 875 helps promote healthy root expansion and water absorption in the field. This is crucial as compaction is a top yield loss for many of our customers. Finishing up the piece is a robust set of finishing disks and rolling baskets to smooth everything out to a level finish.

A relatively new model hoping to make its mark, the 8050 Interceptor is another multi-condition appropriate unit. Capable of pulling through several different types of soil, the Interceptor really shines with speed as it tends to perform best when pulled at 6.5MPH or above. Another strength of this unit is fluffing up muck ground. A relatively easy soil type for most tillage units, the Interceptor is capable of moving incredible amounts of material while laying it down perfectly flat and ready to plant, all without plugging.

The 5200 Enforcer is another all-around crowd pleaser, getting just the right spacing with a solid mix of dirt and residue. The independent blades on rubber combined with tines and rolling baskets in the rear create an excellent finish. Where the Enforcer really shines is in hard, rocky conditions. Where most other tillage pieces struggle, break, or accumulate rocks, the Enforcer pulls through with aplomb.