Matching OPICO Vari Tilth tines and Vari Discs is assisting penetration in hard ground conditions and delivering a number of additional benefits for UK farmers.

Cleveland father and son partnership Peter and Guy Prudom bought a Vari Tilth two years ago.

"We weren't getting sufficient penetration in hard conditions to allow our OPICO Vari Discs to run at a constant depth. So we put the Vari Tilth tines on the front and that cured the job," said Peter Prudom. "It helps the Vari Discs to run straight and it keeps them at a constant depth. It's brilliant."

The Prudoms' Northfields Farm, Mickleby, Saltburn, totals just over 303 ha (750 acres). The land is predominantly heavy clay mixed in with some quite light sandy soil.

"The Vari Tilth is a really nice machine to use," says Guy Prudom. "It is so versatile with little maintenance.

"The tines on the Vari Tilth are doing all the hard work with the discs mixing and levelling the soil on top. And on the headlands you can drop the tines in that much deeper to take out any compaction".

Straw incorporation easier in Yorkshire

Chris Kirby and his brother farm some 300 acres of cereals at Glebe Farm, Helperthorpe, Malton. After harvest his 6-tine OPICO Vari Tilth covers about 200 acres on stubbles and chopped straw prior to ploughing.

"The land is quite stony in a lot of places and that's why our discs wouldn't work as well as they should. It becomes very dry and hard up here. Now we've got the Vari Tilth to loosen the soil up, it's solved the problem.

The Vari Tilth has also been used to lift tramlines. "We didn't think it would go deep enough but we tried it out at a slower speed at a depth of 7/8 inches and it lifted the wheelings.

We're more than satisfied with the machine and plan to use it on all of our land after this harvest."