TILLAGE REVIEWS
1
complete package Jaiden Drought found the Taege 6m cultivator had a number of clever innovations up its sleeve in this 2014 review
Taege 6m cultivator (600 CTV RFH) Row spacing (mm)
121
Outside tine to tine (mm)
5,808
Overall width (mm)
6,300
Folded width (mm)
2,700
No. of tines
49
No. tine rows
4.5
Tine row stagger (mm)
590
Working speed
2 to 14km/h
Tractor hp required
140 (103kW)
The other key advantage about the tine angle is that none of the tines can get out of line.
T
aege Engineering has been enjoying a period of sales success with its seed drills and for a number of good reasons. They are very hard-wearing, basic, built like the proverbial outhouse and ‘cheap’ given the features included as standard. I am running my keen eye for detail over Taege’s new 6m cultivator. It’s basically taken the best bits from its seed drills, including the heavy-duty ‘S’ tine mounted on the angle, and tweaked a few features in order to create a very effective cultivation machine.
KEY DESIGN FEATURES Among a number of key features, the cultivator’s tines have the ability to bite into the soil with no downward force applied. This is achieved by tilting the box section forward where the tine is mounted. This does two things — first, it penetrates into the soil as the spring tine has no other option but to move downwards, and second, because the tip is on an angle, it shatters the ground to create a nice fluffy seed bed. Another advantage of the tilted tine is it allows the tip to follow the contour better as it essentially folds back or tracks around stones and humps and hollows, rather than ploughing straight into it, which is the case with straight-mounted machines. The other key advantage about the tine angle is that none of the tines can get out of line, which is an issue when bolted squarely onto the box section. Contour following is the next key advantage. Again, through the tilting of the ‘S’ tine and its flexibility, this allows approximately 200mm of travel from one tine to the next. Hydraulically controlled lifting on all four wheels gives you easy depth control with the ram spacers. The ram spacers have also been manufactured (despite the different size tyres) so the same
number of shims can be added or taken away, which makes life simple. The wing rams are slot-mounted to allow for increased contour following again without the need for hydraulic down pressure, which would evidently make the machine rigid. When raising and lowering the machine a boomerang type device has been engineered to take up the give in the slot so the wings aren’t slamming against the end of the ram which reduces overall stress on the machine. The last point, and arguably the most important for a machine such as this, is trash clearance. Often these machines are taken either straight into old sprayed-out pasture where sod build-up can be an issue or recultivating ground after crops, in which case crop build-up can be a nightmare for any machine no matter how expensive it is. This machine enables the trash to flow through smoothly again, tied into the angle and flexibility of the tine. As the tines work their way through the ground they create a shaking effect, like a fish swimming. As all 49 tines on the 6m version are wiggling their way through the ground, any trash that is built-up is vibrated off and makes its way out the back and through the tine harrows. As mentioned, there are 49 tines which have been spaced at 121mm apart, both for soil movement and trash clearing characteristics, but in addition there is an assortment of tips available. The test machine we used was fitted with Nihard cast points, however, the Taege tungsten tip, a 125mm sweep, or a maxi-till chisel point are also available. You can also vary the tips. You could run the Nihard points on the front two rows and then the 125mm sweep tips on the rear to create even greater soil movement. I found three passes to be about the optimum in either trashy
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14/01/2021 5:03:05 PM
