Chisel Ripper Digs Deep With Low HP

Chisel Ripper Digs Deep With Low HP SUBSOILERS Subsoilers (58n) 34-1-18 Jeff Sberna's Chisel Ripper allows him to dig deeper with his 120 horsepower Oliver 1855. "We've got a small farm, and we always thought we should get deeper for our drainage issues," says the Bellevue, Ohio, part-time farmer. The most his Oliver tractor could muster was 10 to 11 in. deep. With experience building other equipment - such as turning a snow blower into a composter - Sberna and his father started with an old Oliver 3-pt. hitch field cultivator, and set it up similar to his final prototype, but was limited by the framework of the cultivator. "We built it in four weeks," Sberna says of the first tool, built in 2005. "The first time I put it in the ground, it didn't look like much, but I figured I had something. It pulled smooth." And it dug deep û 13 to 14 in. He sold it to a farmer who is still using it and pleased with how it has improved drainage. Since then, Sberna revised the prototype twice and worked with Cobb Industrial Fabricators to refine the tool. He found parts with the help of Julie Chamberlain, a salesperson at Bellota Agrisolutions in Spain. Sberna recently started marketing a 12-ft. version of the Chisel Ripper. It features five deep ripping tines in the back, and five coulters in front on 30-in. centers with 10 smaller Vibro (stubble) tines in the middle. The bigger tines dig up to 15-in. deep and the smaller tines dig in 3 to 4-in. and work residue under just enough so that it composts quickly. "It leaves the soil open real well for corn roots to go deep into the ground," Sberna says. "It's not re-compacting." The farm's corn yields consistently push the 200 bushel/acre mark, and during a dry spell his corn didn't wilt when other corn in the area did. Digging deep also improved drainage and reduced problems during wet periods. Sberna has used the Chisel Ripper on all types of soil on his 130-acre farm from good black soil to clay and gravel. He noticed improved bean yields when he worked gravel soil deep enough to hit hard subsoil. Having the weight on the tractor with a 3-pt. hitch also helps the tool dig deeper - especially with lower horsepower tractors. The hydraulically-controlled tillage tool is operated from the tractor seat to change depth as needed. Sberna sells the 12-ft. Chisel Ripper for $21,000. He is considering making 8-ft. and 15-ft. models. To see the tillage tool in action, go to www.youtube.com and search for "farmbuilt1". Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jeff Sberna, J&D Farmbuilt, 6991 County Road 219, Bellevue, Ohio 44811 (ph 419 483-9853; cell 419 271-4176; jdfarmbuilt@hotmail.com).

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