The Starliner rotary hoe is the latest addition to Kuhn’s mechanical weeding range, designed to hoick undesirable species from young crops while simultaneously aerating the soil surface.

There’s just one model for now, the 6.3m wide Starliner 630, which carries 63 individually suspended rotary stars.

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Torsion springs on their mounting arms provide up to 28kg of ground pressure, allowing the spoon-shaped tips to follow ground contours as they both uproot weeds and break surface crusts.

Aggressivity of the rearward-facing spoons can be altered by varying forward speed, typically between 12-25kph, and by adjusting the height of the gauge wheels.

The timing of field passes is critical to minimise the impact of work on cereals and other crops, the company notes.