Over the past week, well actually 9 months we’ve been testing and demoing a variety of high speed vertical tillage tools to determine first if we need one of these $100,000 + tools and secondly if the answer is yes, which one. I’m currently testing the King Kong as Lance has dubbed it (Kongskilde 9100). JayDee AgTech brought this unit out last Tuesday tethered to a 9560R 4wd powerhouse. These units require higher horsepower to pull them properly to do their job. So this massive 9560R ( that’s 560 horsepower with the R standing for rubber tires vs T which would be tracks) with 800 metric rubber, full auto shift with cruise control, full pivoting swivelling seat and console and ….. Oh wait, back to the real demo.

These units are about trash management, getting through the straw, levelling the ground, helping it dry and preparing the seed bed. The Kongskilde demo was accompanied by 2 manufacturer employees and 2 JDAT employees to get it set right to meet our needs. That was hugely beneficial to fine tune it. I’m thrashing through heavy oats straw currently (barley straw last week in moist conditions) and it’s doing a great job of turning the soil, and managing straw piles and bunches. At 7-9 mph it trails nicely avoiding strips. It’s a heavy unit, as they all are. When you hit wet soggy low spots where the tractor starts to spin, it’s debatable if you are better to leave the unit in the ground or lift it onto the 8 oversized tires that want to sink as well under the weight of the unit. With the ability to adjust the offset of the gangs of discs it seems quite versatile. Overall very impressed with it. Do we need one? The verdict is still out.

I’ll move over this afternoon to a very simple Kelly Harrow. Seeing it winged up makes it appear much more complex than it really is. Cleaning up what was a disastrous pea crop and cattail sloughs was its most impressive feat. As was leaving it all level and smooth.

Last fall we demo’d the Kelly after a Lemken which honestly is my least favourite ( the Lemken that is) The most complex with the most parts of the lot, it arrived brand new with no instruction. After the experience of the fine tuning on the Kongskilde I’m sure the same holds for the Lemken. The Lemken floated more behind the tractor causing strips and was prone to plugging up gangs on wet or heavier straw requiring lifting up and over and circling back to try and level them off.

So again we ask ourselves, do we need one. And if we did, the toss up would be the Kelly or the King Kong. It’s a pricey tool to sit and be used from time to time.

A huge thanks to Tyler and Bentley at JayDee AgTech as well as Bill and Chris from Kongskilde for their time and attention last week.