Vaderstad has developed a new E-Services option for its TopDown and Opus cultivators that allows operators to change a ruck of settings from the tractor seat. 

Some of these tweaks can even be made automatically using a prescription map formulated in the farm office and plugged into the tractor’s Isobus terminal.

See also: Custom-built cultivators offers money-saving alternative

Changing working depth and other settings on cultivators usually requires operators to venture from the cab and fiddle with spacers on hydraulic rams, or faff with pin-and-hole systems on tine units.

But this new feature means the working sections and hydraulic tine pressure can be tweaked on the go through Vaderstad’s iPad-based E-Control system.

In principle, this means drivers are more likely to react to differing field conditions, such as soil type, moisture and abundance of crop residue, ensuring the ground is being worked correctly and efficiently.

It does this through a network of sensors and updated hydraulics and electrics, with the system requiring some periodical calibration for accurate depth control as metal wears.

This process involves manually setting the machine at a point where the tines touch ground level and recording it in the control terminal.

© Vaderstad

Four pre-sets

Four pre-set configurations can be programmed into the terminal to make the operator’s life even simpler.

The machine is able to switch from regular fieldwork settings to ones more suitable for tramlines or tough areas at the touch of a button.

With Isobus, these pre-sets can also be stored in the tractor joystick’s auxiliary buttons rather than using the touchscreen, making it more user friendly.

Other features include a “low lift” setting for more efficient ins and outs when turning. This can be set to leave the tines in shallow work to eradicate tracks on the headlands.

There are also some backward-facing work lights to improve visibility of the worked ground.

Variable cultivations

Perhaps the most interesting possibility from the addition of E-Services on the two cultivators is the ability for the system to automatically adjust settings on the go using a prescription map.

This variable-rate thinking has already been applied to fertiliser and seeding applications.

With soil scanning data available on many farms, adding variable-rate cultivations seemed like the missing link and logical next step, according to Vaderstad technical specialist Ed Hutchinson.

He says that, in the past, working depths and settings during tillage operations have been based on gut feeling and experience, but the new technology allows a shift to more data-driven decision making.

Maps can be based on scans of fields, which indicate soil type changes, and tweaked to account for other local or seasonal factors. These are then plugged into the tractor’s Isobus terminal.

Once dropped into work, the E-Services system will take over and automatically adjust the discs, tines, leveller and packer as the machine moves through the prescription zones.

The most important adjustments are the depth and packer pressures that, if set incorrectly for the soil type, can waste fuel or cause unnecessary soil compaction.

© Vaderstad

Benchmarking cultivations

The operator can still make manual adjustments based on what they are seeing in the field, and these will be recorded by the task controller and digital mapping in the tractor’s control terminal.

“Now we can start to collect data and benchmark the field. This helps the farmer use good data to make better decisions from then on,” Ed tells Farmers Weekly.

“Rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach, things can be tailored to soil types and conditions in the field, and that is exciting.”

Vaderstad sees this technology as an important step towards full autonomy in farming, with tractor and implement optimising operations together.

Vaderstad TopDown 400-700 and Opus 400-700 machines can be ordered with the E-Services option from this month, with serial production starting at the beginning of 2024.

The E-Services option retails at £8,095, and the iPad, E-Control software and holder are an additional £1,265.