Simba solo and other min.till. rigs

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Would like some of your opinions of the various new minimum tillage cultivators on the scene in Europe (Yeah, I know americans are big on min/no till also but the machines are a bit different) such as Simba Solo and Amazone Centaur.

Lee Sutton, I know you got a Solo. What made you go for that particular unit?

Those thing seem to be getting quite popular in spite of the massive drawbarpower required (I want a big tractor too, maybe I should get one?). Wonder if my close-to-heart-company Vaderstad have anything in the works...

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laapa,

Yep weve got a solo and i am sure you've heard me say this 1000 times - its the bees knees! since the 1st prototype 3 metre version appeared with us 3 years ago i can honestly say we have never touched our:

plough, power harrow, subsoiler or spring tine cultivators!

the solo does all of the those jobs in one pass. it works best on heavy soils and you must cultivate as quickly behind the combine as possible so that the weeds can chit and grow before the new crop is planted.

wearing parts costs less than £1 pound per acre. however the initial purchase cost puts the running cost over £10 per acre. but your getting a seedbed in one pass so about £15-20 per acre for a seedbed is very good for the uk.

look in september 2001 issue of profi as there are two articles on the 3 metre version. one describes the machine and the other is our opinion of it.

i have seen a couple of second hand ones around in the uk - so they are strating to appear. the discs will do 5000 acres before replacement is required. the points on the legs however only do a max of 300 before replacement.

we covered 2000 acres last autumn with ours and have got another 500 acres to do now, so the total for the cropping year of 2001-2002 will be 2500 acres.

this autumn we are hoping to cover 3000 acres and then another 1000 in the spring. we should do it as a friend rund the 4.5 metre version and he's covering 8000 acres a year.

big drawback is hp. simba are well out on their power requirement and i mean well out. a mx270, jd 8410 wont even touch it properly on normal soil. put the legs any deeper than 8 inches and they just stop.

you'll get away with a challenger 55 but the ideal for the 3m is a challenger 75 (340hp). the friend originally had a 75 on the 4.5 metre but it struggled so he had to swap to a 95. if you go for the 6 metre version then you'll need the new 500hp quadtrack or challenger! good luck though!

work on the principle of 90-100hp per metre to make the cutivator effcient. you've got to keep it moving at a constant speed to get the mixing action and th eground covered. this speed is 5-6 mph in all conditions.