Canadian farm equipment manufacturer Salford Group invited Farm Industry News and two media outlets from Canada to its headquarters in Salford, Ontario, last week for an exclusive preview of two models of vertical tillage equipment that will be released this fall. Farm Industry News also was given the opportunity to meet publically for the first time, with BBI Spreaders and Valmar Airflo, two fertilizer application and seeding equipment companies that Salford acquired over the last seven months to extend its product offerings. With these acquisitions, Salford says it will be the only Original Engineering Manufacturer (OEM) company to produce broadcast spinner spreader, pneumatic boom spreader and drill type granular fertilizer application equipment in North America. More on this later.

The new tillage products for release this fall are the I-2200 and the I-4200 vertical tillage models. Both of these products are part of the company’s Independent or “I” Series, named for its independently mounted coulter blades that vertically slice through soil while fractioning layers of compaction through what the company calls a “jackhammer effect.”

To put the new models in context, the I-Series is made up of eight models in all that vary in aggressiveness, from light tillage and slicing residue to full-bore soil displacement and residue incorporation up to 5 inches deep.

The new I-2200 model is classified somewhere in the middle of the heavy-duty side. Salford calls the 1-2200 its “true vertical tillage” machine with coulter blades that run straight up and down for minimal soil disturbance. The I-4200, on the other hand, is called a “hybrid” tillage machine that combines the concept of vertical tillage and conventional tillage in one unit.

Both tools are a foray into the new realm of “site-specific” tillage, which the entire industry has been working toward. Salford calls this ability “field-adaptive technology,” in which the user can change settings of the machine on the fly according to different field conditions. Salford’s product offering for this is its new Flex-Finish hydraulically-controlled harrow attachments, which will be publically unveiled this fall along with the new I-Series models.

We will dig down into the features of all of these products, along with details on its new company acquisitions, in the next few days. Check back at farmindustrynews.com for a photo gallery from the event. In the meantime, watch the unveiling of the I-2200 below.

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