Row-crop cultivators are being put to work because of the emergence of herbicide-resistant “super weeds,” says DTN, “something of a renaissance” for mechanical weed control. Cultivators went into decline with adoption of limited-tillage and herbicides. The new generation of cultivators are bigger, covering 12, 16 or even 24 rows at a pass, and can be teamed with GPS technology to run at higher speeds without drifting off-line.
DTN quotes Rod Haarberg of Orthman Manufacturing as saying, “GPS is one more way that row-crop cultivation is more productive than 15 years ago.”
Also on the so-much-bigger front, The Western Producer has a story about a massive seeder more than 200 feet wide.