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Soutwest Ks. | Elmfarms: I built one using an Orthman Row Crop cultivator. I did this probably 7 or so years ago when people in my area were debating if it was a valid practice. I didn't want to spend a lot of bucks on something that potentially may have been obsolete in two years, so I did this inexpensive route. After running it for approx. 4 or 5 years I found that the individual row units were starting to twist which would effect the alignment of each row. I finally sold the rig and bought a new Orthman 1tRipper. If you look at the difference between the two, you can easily see that the row crop units are not built to heavy enough specs to last very long. On the Orthman that I put together, I mounted Martin trash whippers right behind the solid coulter, followed by a special heavy duty mole knife I purchased through Waco Industries, Enid, OK. Berm builders were made by Yetter. I used my own shank design to bolt the mole knives to with a mount for the Yetter berm builders. I could only run prob. a max. of 8" deep with that design. The 1tRipper can run 10"+ inches deep if needed. If you think you are in strip till to stay, I would probably skip the home built rig and go with a proven design. Orthman cult. probably have some of the heaviest row linkage in the business and if it won't take the stress, I don't know where you would go for a start to your own home built unit. On the other hand if you didn't need to go so deep, maybe 6" or so I think the Orthman cult. may work OK as long as you have or can purchase one with rigid, banded coulters on the front. It is hard to get the trash to flow as well with a rig like that as the newer style 1tRipper with the extended linkage. It gets real tight to get all your accessories mounted in the space that is there on the cult. rig which in turn makes for sensitivity to high residue and humidity. | |
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Building a strip till
