The New John Deere CC and MT Tillage Tools

Tony Kramer: Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology Podcast, and I'm sitting down with agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. In this episode, I talk with Tyler Zima about some new tillage products coming to us from John Deere. With that, let's dive into the show. Like I said, we are going to be talking about some exciting new tillage products that are coming to us from John Deere.

We are out in the field at RDO's annual technology field days, getting customers out into the field, getting employees in the cabs, getting people hands-on technology and equipment. Tyler, I want to thank you for coming in and chatting with me today out here in the field, taking some time away from your teaching duties. Before we dive into it, why don't you tell us a little bit about you, who you are, where you come from, and how you got to where you are today?

Tyler Zima: Thanks, Tony. Again, Tyler Zima, product manager for Tillage Technology here at RDO. Fairly new to the RDO family, I've been with the company for five months now. Most of my, or I should say all of my background comes in the construction business. For the last 14 years, I worked for a construction manufacturer, but I'm excited to be standing here and talking to you today about the new MT7. The MT7 is a minimal-till ripper that John Deere has actually redesigned from the 2100. What the 7 stands for is the number of shanks that are going to be on this tillage unit.

This one has 7. There are four different models. There is a 5, a 7, a 9, and an 11. The 11 is actually new to the lineup, so it's going to give customers a little wider tillage tool for those ripping and minimal-till ripping applications. There are some different styles to it as well. There are a 3-point and a drawn. The 3-point is going to be your 5, 7, and 9. If you go to the drawn units, you're going to have a 7, 9, and 11. Really, you're not going to be able to get the 5 in a drawn, and then you won't be able to get the 11 in a 3-point.

Nice thing about the 3-point is a true drawn, so you're not going to have to have a caddy like you would with some of the other competitors that are running in the minimal-tills. As I mentioned, it's replacing the 2100. Some of the things that changed from the 2100 and really the main things that changed are going to be the wear components. The wing or the shoe has always been made of like a carbide steel. That has now been transferred into the front shin, the clip, as well as the shank itself, all hardened carbide to just get more wear, life, and durability out of those shanks as well.

Some of the things that are going to be the same, you're still going to see the same cushion trip force at 3,200 pounds. You're going to have a shear pin at 7,200 pounds, and then you're going to have your cutting wheel up front at 600 pounds of trip force. What you're looking at from a standard, looking at about 40 to 60 horsepower per standard depending on the ground that you're in or the hardness of the ground, anywhere from 10 to 16 inches from a depth standpoint. With the coulters on the front, those are going to be at 22 inches. The shank spacing is at 30 inches. On the 5, you can get an optional of 36 inches, but the other models will all have a 30-inch spacing.

Tony: Like you said, this is a redesign, not kind of, it is a redesign. Those listeners that were familiar with that 2100, that inline ripper, that minimum till ripper, you want to get deep, but you don't want to have a ton of soil disturbance. This is the tool a customer is going to go for.

Tyler: Yes. I think another nice change that they had, the shank that's on this one is 3 quarters of an inch. Really, the dirt is going to roll back into that trench and cover that trench up. There is an inch and a quarter, and really the reason for that is to keep that trench open, get better water penetration. Then also you can add an optional closing wheel behind each one of those shanks to push the soil back down and cover that trench if you prefer.

Tony: With a tool like this, so obviously we're not very wide, but we are going deep. You said that 10 to 16 inches. What is it going to take, if I'm interested in this tool, what am I going to need for a tractor to be able to pull this thing efficiently with horsepower and traction and whatnot? What size of tractor am I looking at?

Tyler: I would say with this tool being a 7, like I said, on the high end at 60 horsepower per shank, you're at 420 horsepower. You're looking at a pretty good size machine. Even with this one, your 8R410 is going to be right at the brink if you get into that really heavy and compact soil. Likely want to get up into that 9R-style machine to pull this tool.

Tony: Soil conditions, the amount of compaction, how deep you're going in that 10 to 16-inch range is obviously going to play a factor in how big of a tractor you need on the front. Some softer, lighter, more forgiving ground, you might not need quite as much, but you get into some tough conditions, you, like you said, opt for that larger tractor. Going to be better off overpowered versus underpowered and not being able to do what you can do is so neat to see this new MT7 out here in the field.

Saw you guys running it a little bit earlier. It looks like it does a great job again with the minimal soil disturbance, but yet you're getting down deep. You're breaking up that hardpan. Great to see John Deere redesigning that inline minimum till ripper. Really exciting. I imagine the customer perception around it has been good so far here at the Technology Field Days.

Tyler: Yes. Especially being in South Dakota where you do see a lot more minimal till, that was the reason to actually put it in the ground. We had a few customers that were really interested in seeing this. I think to your point, the minimal soil disturbance, but it was cool to see how much the soil actually lifts up and then sets back down, which is really going to help again with that water penetration and getting water into the soil out here.

Tony: Not all tillage fits one farm, but that's the great thing about the John Deere tillage portfolio is that there's tools for everybody, whether it be that minimum till inline ripper or it's the 2680H we see over there. This one that we're standing in front of right now, brand new tool to the John Deere lineup. Tell us a little bit about the new CC model of tillage tool.

Tyler: Yes, so the CC, the Coulter Chisel, we have the 19 in front of us and that just refers to how many shanks are on this tillage tool. It goes from 11 all the way up to 25 standards. Your max width on that largest one at 25 is going to be just over 31 feet. With the coulters on the front, we're going to start burying that residue, chopping that residue. It comes standard with your four-inch twist shanks, which will roll that material back over. Then you can have your harrows on the back and you can also add the rolling baskets to the back of that as well, leaving just a very nice finish with this tillage tool.

As I mentioned, we have the coulters across the front. Those are mounted straight in line. There's not an angle on those coulters. They are mounted in a gang-style. With these, you have an option to run them in a float or you can apply pressure to them, like the baskets in the rear, up to 900 pounds of pressure on those coulters as you're going through the field. One of the things that's really being promoted from John Deere on this coulter chisel is acres per hour. Seven inches in the ground at seven miles per hour is what Deere is advertising right now.

You can go up to 10 inches from a depth standpoint, but obviously, you're going to not really hit that seven miles an hour. Again, one of the things that is being touted from John Deere. I would say another thing that's exciting about this tool is it does have the TrueSet Active tillage piece to it, which is going to also set you up for autonomy. Deere talks more and more about autonomy. This also has a light kit on it to support autonomy in the future. Again, TrueSet Active, being able to manage the depth, having that consistent depth and even get into some more of that documentation as we move into the future.

Tony: Tell us a little bit more about TrueSet Active. What sets that apart from the traditional TrueSet tillage? Why is TrueSet Active so important moving forward? You talk about the future of autonomous tillage and all of that. Talk to us a little bit more about that.

Tyler: TrueSet is going to allow you to have some of those controls from a depth. You're looking at like a VT. You'd have your gang angle. You've got basket pressure. Some's even going to give you four and a half. Having all those controls with inside the cab and being able to-- you don't have to get out, move it if you want to go deeper, you're able to adjust that from the cab and you can have preset settings on that as well, depending on the type of crop that you're in or that you're going to be tilling in.

Where TrueSet Active comes in is it's going to have an ultrasonic sensor that's mounted to the bottom of the frame. If you say you want to till at four inches, it is going to maintain that four inches across the field. If you get mud buildup on your tires and they raise up an inch. That's going to put the tool back down an extra inch to maintain that four inches or on the flip side, you get into a softer area and you sink into the mud. It's going to raise that tool up. Again, just giving you a consistent even depth throughout the field.

Tony: That is a very beneficial piece of technology added to this tool and can get it on other ones as well. I know we've seen it on the 2660 VT and some other like that. TruSet Active, a great addition to this tool. Getting back to the tool, the components itself, and the different pieces, you talked about the coulters up front here that we're standing next to. We can adjust, are those separate a depth adjust from the shanks or is that all one piece?

Tyler: Yes, those are separate adjustable from the shanks themselves. You can run the coulters at a different depth than the shanks. As I mentioned, you have option of pressure on those as well, but yes, those are separate.

Tony: Perfect, yes, and it really looks like a great tool. Now, we get the coulters up front being able to chop and size that residue. We get these four-inch twist shanks on the rear and then you've got, like you said, the finishing attachments with the harrows and the rolling baskets. Now, I imagine that the rolling baskets can also be pressure-adjusted?

Tyler: Correct, yes, you can also have the same amount of pressure on those from float up to 900 PSI. Talking about the coulters, they're 22 inches and they're spaced at 7.5 inches apart. If you move to the shanks, we've got 15-inch spacings on the shanks and there's 19 of those on this. That puts it just shy of 24 feet on the CC19. The harrows come on there. The baskets are an additional option beyond the harrows at your 900 PSI if you choose to do something like that.

Tony: Great, well thank you, Tyler, very much for taking the time out of your day here out at the Technology Field Days that RDO is putting on. Talking about these two new tools, great tillage lineup. John Deere is constantly rebuilding, adding new tools like this coulter chisel to be able to give solutions to customers all over the world with different farming practices, different tillage practices. Great to see all these different tillage tools. Great to see the customers and RDO employees that have come through the field here today. Again, thank you, Tyler, for taking your time to talk to me a little bit about these new John Deere tillage tools.

Tyler: Yes, and thank you. I'm excited to see these get in the dirt.

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