Väderstad’s inline side-band knife targets trash clearance

Launched at Crop Production show at Saskatoon, Sask., the latest addition in the Väderstad tillage series made an appearance — the inline sideband knife.

The knife is an insertable tip that creates a side-band effect. It can be used on any of the company’s drills worldwide, but is particularly useful for western Canadian conditions.

“We’ve brought this to the market to help with our trash clearance. What we’ve done is we’ve now aligned both our knives, both seed and fertilizer, so our trash has capabilities to flow around each other,” says Darrell Beattie of Väderstad, in the video below. “However, we have discovered that with the new design of our twin wing, which is also an insertable tip, you can go back and forth between twin wing and your side band. So you could do your cereals at say 9-inch (spacing), your canola at 12 inches, and instead of about a 25 minute job per opener, you’re looking at about a one-minute job.”

The knife is versatile when it comes to soil conditions, but Beattie suggests to keep an eye out in the wet, sticky gumbo soils, as you may have issues with closing.

The knife retails for about $200 and will have some availability through parts for the 2020 growing season. It is expected to be in full-fledged production availability by 2021.

Learn more in the conversation between RealAgriculture’s Kara Oosterhuis, and Darrell Beatie, below:

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