John Deere adds vertical tillage tool to Frontier product lineup

Producers looking for an affordable vertical tillage tool that sizes and buries residue in the fall or prepares smooth seedbeds in the spring have another option: The new FrontierTM VT17 Series Vertical Tillage Tool from John Deere.

Vertical tillage enables producers to operate their machines at higher speeds, up to 10 mph, while minimizing erosion and reducing soil compaction. According to Scott Geier, marketing manager, partnered products for John Deere, the new Frontier VT17 Series Vertical Tillage Tools can be easily adjusted and custom-configured to best fit the level of residue management and tillage that customers want.

“The VT17 has the weight, durable tubular frame construction, dual tandem wheels, blade and finishing options, and other features that customers are looking for in an economical vertical tillage tool,” he says. “These new field tillage tools are designed to provide years of work across a wide variety of soils and field conditions.”

The VT17 Series offers fore and aft leveling adjustments that can quickly be made using a simple crank system. Gang angles on the implement can be adjusted from zero to 12 degrees for less or more aggressive tillage. Operators can fine-tune the machine’s operating depth from zero to three inches using a pin-and-clip adjustment.

The VT17 comes with the choice of 20-inch straight or 22-inch concave blades. Each blade type is fluted for improved residue flow, sizing, and mixing, even with aggressive gang settings. The machine’s spring-adjustable rolling baskets run perpendicular to the blade direction to break up clods and improve field leveling and seedbed uniformity.

Tandem dual wheels, standard equipment on all VT17 models, are mounted on a tubular carriage frame that’s hydraulically raised and lowered. As an option, an adjustable middle breaker can be mounted between the wheels on the center frame to disrupt soil in the center-line of travel that’s left open where the front and rear gangs do not overlap.

“With VT17 Series Tillage Tools, there’s no extra weights or additional ballast to buy, maintain, or to work around. All of the weight that’s needed to do the job is built right into each model’s frame and components,” Geier says. “These tools are a great fit for producers who farm smaller-sized fields or operate under 200 horsepower tractors.”

Four sizes of VT17 Series Vertical Tillage Tools are available with working widths ranging from 10 to 15 feet. Tractor horsepower requirements range from 85 to 150 horsepower depending on the width of the model it’s paired with. Frontier equipment is available exclusively at your local John Deere dealer. For more information you can visit JohnDeere.com/Frontier.