TILLAGE REVIEWS
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Images by Justin Bennett
Farms & Farm Machinery looks back at some of its most popular reviews from the last decade. This month, six of our best Tillage reviews
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Lemken Heliodor 9 Working width
7m
Transport width
3m
Weight
3,582kg (without roller)
Number of discs
56
Discs Concave
510mm x 5mm
Disc spacing
125mm
Mounting 3-point linkage
Cat3 semi trailing
Power requirement
175–280hp 129–206kW
After just three passes with the Heliodor 9, the first deep ripped peat soil paddock was looking pretty good and ready for the planter.
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eat my dirt Farm Trader NZ’s Mark Fouhy put the Lemken Heliodor 9 to the test in late 2019
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his impressive bit of machinery incorporates modern thinking into the art of soil cultivation while keeping things old-school simple. Even better, it speeds up the cultivation process while saving fuel, and with the price of fuel these days, that’s definitely a good thing. The Lemken Heliodor 9 compact disc harrow is capable of stubble cultivation as well as seedbed preparation; a job that has until recently been taken care of by power take-off (PTO)driven tillage implements.
PUT TO THE TEST We were able to spend a day with the Heliodor 9, at work on some flat paddocks in the Hauraki Plains. And because of the changeable weather of late, there were a few late paddocks of maize still to be planted. With the seven-metre machine hooked up to a Fendt 824, which at 240 horsepower (179kW) is right in the middle of Lemken’s suggested power requirement of 175–280hp (130–209kW), we set work early in the morning. The flat Ngatea landscape didn’t provide any particularly tough conditions but did allow us to test the operating speed fairly effectively. With its seven-metre width and power to burn, we covered the ground at a respectable speed. In comparison to say a six-metre power harrow operating at 5km/h, where you would probably be burning 60-plus litres per hour or 15–20 litres per hectare (approximately), our (admittedly rough) test numbers from the tractor monitor showed an average of four litres per hectare, at which rate you could do almost four passes to use the same amount of fuel. After just three passes with the Heliodor 9, the first deep ripped peat soil paddock was looking pretty good and ready for the planter. The second paddock was a tough ask: heavy marine clay, which had a lot of grass left on it when sprayed and disced. After four passes, it still didn’t look ready to plant, and even after running the power harrow we also had available through it
for comparison, the trash looked like it was going to be an issue, showing just how difficult some soils are to give ideal seedbeds for optimum crop establishment and yield. Conversely, I know paddocks around Matamata worked with the Heliodor, which have come up perfectly after just two passes, leaving a finish very similar to that of a power harrow.
OPERATION The Heliodor 9 is semi trailed for the seven-metre version (this is what our test machine was) and is mounted on a three-point linkage. This gives excellent manoeuvrability for headland turns. In its basic form, there are only two sets of double-acting hydraulic banks required: for raising and lowering the machine, and folding from transport to work mode. The double rollers, which control the depth worked by the discs, can be optioned with hydraulic operation. This allows minor adjustments to be made on the go instead of with the manual pin system, which also does the job. Hydraulic levelling paddles are another option and can be added in front of the first row of discs. This would be particularly useful for levelling plough furrows, although, I am sure would work just as well knocking the high points off initial discing or deep ripping. To avoid just levelling discing out, operating the Heliodor across the paddock helps achieve the desired result. The other key piece of operating information is that faster is better (up to a point) with operating speeds of 12–15km/h being optimal. Front, cab and good seat suspension are high on the tractor spec list for this job. Initial pass after primary discs probably is only going to allow a max speed of around 7–8km/h. The reason for the speed is to allow the discs to throw and tumble the soil clods to break them up before being broken down by the rear rollers, a cage and crumbler roller (in the case of our test machine). A number of roller options are available to suit different conditions. The rear rollers have a central oscillation point, which helps keep the discs and machine operating smoothly across the
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