WESTERN PRODUCER — Lemken has become a major player in the North American tillage equipment market in the last decade. That has meant offering a select group of its machines here that fit with prairie broadacre farming practices, which can be a little different than the type and scale of machines many farmers use in its European home market.
This year the German company revealed it will soon add another implement intended to appeal to broadacre growers in Canada and the United States. It’s set to introduce a wider working width model to the top end of its Rubin 10 high-speed disc line, which originally debuted in 2019.
“The new version we have is 10 metres, 33 feet,” said Cord Diekmann, market development manager at Lemken.
“We have two machines in the country that we are running and getting some feedback and then we will release it next year.”
The new model will keep the same ground engaging features as the current implements in the line, which top out at 23 feet. That means sticking with the 25-inch discs. The Rubin 10s are designed to leave a smooth field finish suitable for seeding or planting into. They typically demand about 15 horsepower per foot of working width, depending on tillage depth and field speed.
“The symmetrical disc arrangement, the very aggressive dual cutting angle, that all stays the same,” said Diekmann.
“With that aggressive angle it’s lifting up the soil and the trash. It throws it up into the air and the harrows knock it back to the ground.”
However, because of its wider working width, the bigger Rubin 10 will get a different frame, which folds forward into transport position. The current narrower models fold rearward. The new folding design allows the wider Rubin 10 to still meet European legal road size limits.
“The 23-foot is as wide as we can go with a two-section frame folding this way,” he said.
“Otherwise it would be too high. The new version folds to the front. It’s quite a long frame designed to handle residue, so it was not that easy to design something that folds to the required dimensions.”
Another difference between the new wider version and existing models is how it lifts out of the ground at the headlands in the field. Existing models lift the frame out of the ground and stand on their wheels like most implements do. The new model, however, transfers the implement’s weight to the rear rolling baskets as the discs lift out of the ground.
“The weight of the machine is carried on the roller while you are turning,” he said.
“On the smaller machines, the weight is carried on the tires.”
The Rubin 10 is designed to work best at higher field speeds.
“You can go 10 m.p.h. if you like,” said Deikmann.
“The faster you go, the better the job is.”
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