Buying a rotavator

[pete29]

We are trying to decide whether to buy a rotavator? We farm organically and are trying to cut down on tillage trips. Looking at a Howard rotavator or a Kuhn tiller, which one is better, We have local dealers of Kuhn, while Howard would be much farther away.

 

[Anonymous-0]

What is making you think you need a rotovator ? These units take power, are hard on PTO units, weeds are a greater problem because they leave weed seeds on top of seed bed. You will also pack the top part of your soil and reduce drainage. If you are farming organic I would think you will do a better job with conventional tillage. You will have a much better seed bed. My two cents worth.

 

[Walt Davies]

I plow then disk then use my rototiller to pulverize the soil its make for a better bed to plant in. Didn't have any problem with weeds last year on a new garden.

Walt

 

[Mark-Mi]

Power tillers are high maintenance. Especialy sandy ground.Figure to go through a lot of tiller knives.Mark

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Hi Pete,

Just got back from the MOSES conference in La Crosse yesterday and both Kuhn and Howard had tillers on display. They look like they're equally well built but I don't really have any experience beyond a BCS garden tiller.

Gary Zimmer was at the show and gave a presentation. His farm wouldn't operate without a tiller and he was awarded organic farmer of the year. His two most used pieces of tillage equipment are a pair of tillers and a subsoiler. He doesn't own a moldboard or chisel plow and says they're of no value on his place. He does 400 acres of corn and has 1200 more acres of other crops (He mostly talked about alfalfa and corn and didn't break down the acres of each crop beyond saying he had 400 acres corn)

If you have support locally for Kuhn I'd get one of those.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have had a Howard rototiller for 30 years now and overall, it has been very reliable. The only thing I did not like about it was when I had to replace one of the end bearings for the tine shaft. I removed it and tried to match it at the local bearing parts houses. They researched it and found that it was specially made for Howard by the bearing company and it was only available via a Howard dealer. We all know what that means - it cost me five times what it would have at the bearing house.