Field Cultivators For Sale in Ireland

It is used to rotate, pulverise, aerate and stir the soil and can be deployed to prepare a seedbed before planting or for killing weeds by uprooting, chopping and burying them. Cultivators can be self-propelled or drawn by a tractor. In the latter case they are usually attached by means of the three-point hitch and powered by the PTO. Cultivators were originally pulled by draft animals or even people. The concept of disturbing the soil to control weeds has been around for thousands of years and was originally achieved with hand-held implements such as hoes. This practice declined in modern times as herbicides have been the preferred method to control weeds, but the rise of organic farming has seen something of a renaissance in cultivators. Today, more farmers realise that the cultivator has a place alongside herbicide use in a balanced approach to weed control.

The earliest example of what we might consider a powered cultivator today was Arthur Clifford Howard’s 1912 powered rotary hoe. Howard experimented with his invention on his father’s Australian farm, hooking it up to a tractor and finding that the unit was successful in tilling the soil without any packing occurring, which often happened with a standard plough. Howard went on to perfect his cultivator using an L-shaped blade and founded a company, Howard Auto Cultivators, to market his new machine. Other inventors and farm machinery companies continued to experiment with motorised cultivators up to around 1920, until International Harvester created the Farmall in 1921, which combined various tractor duties with cultivation. Howard’s cultivator company moved to the UK and expanded internationally before being bought by a Danish company, Thrige Agro, in 1985 and it then became part of Kongskilde in 2000.

Today’s cultivators are usually tractor-powered and can vary in size from 10ft to 80ft working widths. Larger models will often have hydraulically powered folding arms to make them easier to transport. They can be used as a trailed implement, mounted via a three-point hitch or frame-mounted amidships beneath the tractor. They are extensively used for tillage in a wide variety of crop fields. The primary function is to prepare the seed bed and to bury any crop residue prior to planting.

They are also utilised for weed control and to move nutrients through the soil and ensure the planted crop has the right mix of nutrients, water and soil temperature. These field cultivators have large numbers of shanks attached to the bottom of a metal frame, with small rods at the rear of the unit to smooth the treated soil. Row crop cultivators are different units that are used to control weeds between crop rows. These have blades that cut weeds at the roots, near the crop base, and then turn the soil.

Today many companies offer a range of cultivators. These include Amazone, Bomford, Cooper, Cousins, Falcon, Flexicoil, Horsch, John Deere, Kongskilde, Kverneland, Lemken, Massey Ferguson, Opico, Quivogne, Simba, Sumo, Vaderstad and Wilder.

The cultivator is a relatively simple implement and designed for hard work. Repairs and maintenance are generally affordable, and a used cultivator can be a productive piece of equipment. As always, a careful trial is advised.