Rubber-Tired Weed Puller Now Works Better Than Ever

Rubber-Tired Weed Puller Now Works Better Than Ever CROPS Weed Control “It’s aggressive enough to pull the biggest weeds in the most severe conditions ” says Dan Bourquin about the update kit he recently introduced for his rubber-tired mechanical weed puller which was first featured in FARM SHOW back in 1978 - our second year of publication The Bourquin weed puller’s tires pull tall-growing weeds from low growing crops The machine went out of production in the 1980’s when Roundup-ready crops caught on It was re-introduced a few years ago when Roundup resistant weeds started developing A row of wheels which are driven hydraulically rotate against each other grabbing weeds which extend above the crop row The original machine used rubber-tired wheels only but the re-introduced machine combined a rubber-tired wheel with a metal roller that was covered by a rubber mesh material According to Bourquin the new Pos-i-Pull disc kit makes the weed puller work even better “It’s designed to handle the problem of Roundup resistant weeds which can get big fast and are very hard to pull out ” says Bourquin “We tested the machine last year on an Arkansas farm and it worked even better than expected ” The kit uses notched metal discs that bolt on in pairs on back of the rubber wheels One disc is flat and the other one is curved and faces backward so that it doesn’t cut the weed’s stem The curved disc is bigger than the rubber wheel so that the two discs overlap each other by about a half inch The machine’s rubber wheels and rollers grab the weed and then the weed gets caught in the notches between the 2 discs and pops out of the ground “As the weed gets caught in the notches between the 2 discs it gets shoved sideways which results in more pulling pressure ” says Bourquin “The forward motion of the tractor also helps because it causes the weed to develop a twisting action in the soil that does a better job of thoroughly dislodging the roots from the ground “It’ll pull out weeds with stalks up to 1 1/2 in in diameter With such big weeds the discs might stop rotating briefly but with the forward motion of the machine once the weeds get caught between the notches the discs will start to turn again ” Installation requires removing the hub nuts from the rubber wheels “Some weed pullers require extended stud bolts ” notes Bourquin Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Bourquin’s Farm Mkt & Trading Co Inc 1603 County Rd AA Colby Kan 67701 ph 785 462-3300; dan@organicweedpuller com; www OrganicWeedPuller com

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