Kinze Adds Tillage Tools

Tillage tools have not been part of Kinze Manufacturing’s catalog for a while. They
are now.

The Iowa company, which is famous for planter and grain carts, recently introduced the Mach Till line of hybrid horizontal tillage tools to broaden its customer base.

Early in 2017, Kinze surveyed the slumping machinery industry and asked itself a question, says Susie Veatch, president and chief marketing officer: “What do we have to do to continue to grow and expand our business in a down market?”

One answer was to heed dealers’ requests for a tillage tool. Rather than reinvent the wheel, Kinze began to search for an existing tillage manufacturer with which it could form an alliance. It found a partner in Degelman Industries, a 56-year-old Regina, Saskatchewan, company that specializes in tillage equipment and blades.

THE DEAL. By early 2018, Kinze and Degelman had hammered out a deal. By June, Kinze began building, branding and marketing the Mach Till tillage tool, which is identical to Degelman’s Pro-Till. Degelman will continue to build and sell Pro-Till in the U.S., where it already has a foothold in the Dakotas and Texas.

Kinze wanted a horizontal rather than a vertical tillage tool, in part because it is more versatile, says Justin Render, Kinze product marketing specialist. For that same reason, it was attracted to Degelman’s 5-year-old Pro-Till.

Render calls the new Mach Till a “hybrid horizontal tillage tool” because it “has the advantages of the conventional tillage tools that move the ground horizontally to level combine ruts or sprayer tracks, as well as mixing residue.” In addition, the Mach Till also functions a little like a vertical tillage tool, which does not create “a smear layer” that can impede seed emergence, Render says.

TWO GANGS. The Mach Till achieves these results beginning with two gangs of discs. The first row fractures the soil and chops residue to pass it to the second row, which crosscuts and sizes stalks while further lifting and turning the soil.

The second row of discs is not as aggressive as the first and funnels the soil toward a unique rubber roller on the back of the machine. The furrow roller breaks up clods and firms the soil. Kinze designed the roller to bring residue into contact with the soil in order to enhance decomposition.

DO MORE. Versatility was important to Kinze in its search for a tillage tool, and the Mach Till can work in a wide variety of soil conditions. It also is versatile enough to perform in the fall to work residue into the soil and again in the spring to prepare a seedbed. It is robust enough to run at 8 to 12 mph. The Mach Till comes in four widths: 20, 26, 33 and 40 feet.

Render says the machine is designed and manufactured for durability and low maintenance. Depending on soil conditions, blades should last between 5,000 and 15,000 acres, and the roller should be able to work up to 100,000 acres before it needs to be replaced.

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