|
EC IL | Our 330 30' with the Barracuda kit (blades and spools) does not like to be pulled over 6.5 mph as one wing or the other will start hopping, and the machine did the same thing with the original blades. Original blades looked ineffective on stalks in the fall, but by spring you could tell there was some added breakdown from the pass. The machine throws just enough dirt to fill small holes and sprayer tracks (sometimes takes 2 passes) with either type of blade.
This is the first fall since it was new (10 -12 years?) that it didn't get pulled at all. Behind Yetter Devastors in the fall and if there is 2-3 weeks of stalk breakdown after harvest, it will cut off about 1/2 of the stalks and bury about 1/2 of the light residue, so residue blowing is minimal. There was not enough rain nor dirt splatter (other than the September harvested corn) to even start stalk breakdown this fall, so the 330 wasn't going to do much. We strip-tilled all acres instead (30" rows in bean stubble and between the rows of standing corn stalks), and this may happen every fall from now on if the results are good.
In the spring, whether strip-tilled the previous fall or not, we just tickle the surface with no intention of doing tillage at or below planting depth. There is no streaking of weeds, so it's not failing to incorporate herbicide. With shallow depth in mind, you cannot be afraid to pay for a fall burndown or spring burndown for growing weeds, but we have not had to do much of either in several years. In strip-till situations, row cleaners on the planter remove residue that the 330 moved back on the strip, and you can see black again. We think leaving the actual seedbed generally undisturbed with this tool gets us the most uniform soil and moisture conditions, and therefore emergence.
I'd like to try a different tool like a Krause, just to see if it would pull faster. But for now, every acre every year is planted behind the 330 with Barracuda blades. Shallow spring depth pulls easy too.
DMI Field Cultivator/crumbler combo is not used at all but will remain in the shed in case of spring flooding. | |
|
Case IH 330VT good and bad?
