What Is a Cultivator?

Introduction

A cultivator is an agricultural tool used to till the soil. It works by piercing the ground with its shanks and moving through the ground in a straight line. This machine is best illustrated by the rotary tiller.

A cultivator is mostly used before planting or during the process of plant growth. It is made so that it aerates the soil by overturning it and to disturb the weeds that are already there.

The teeth of a cultivator work on the surface to get rid of weeds, while the shanks work deep into the soil to break up hard parts.

Small cultivators can be used as garden tools for small-scale gardening by a single person. Sized rotary tillers with a combination of features of different machines can be used for more than one purpose. Some of these cultivators can be hooked up to tractors with two or four wheels.

History

In ancient times, hoes or mattocks were used to get rid of weeds. The use of animals to move the soil led to the creation of harrows. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the industrial revolution led to the design of cultivators. These cultivators were drawn using animals or by people.

Arthur Clifford Howard came up with the idea for the powered rotary, which he put to use on his father's farm in Australia. With this, he was able to figure out that soil can be turned over by machines. He also made his invention better by giving it an "L-shaped blade" that was fixed to a rotor.

Howard started a business in 1922. It was called Company Austral Auto Cultivator Pvt. Ltd., but it became Howard Auto Cultivator over time.

In North America, this idea went from being used on small family farms to being used on large scale factories. Fordson designed a cultivator with practical motorized reactive power and this become a milestone in the field. From 1915 to 1920, a special type of machine referred to as motor cultivator was used which later was modified as horse-drawn shank type cultivator.

Herbicides have made it less important to use a cultivator to get rid of weeds in modern farming. In later years, people learned that herbicides have a lot of bad effects and must be used in a limited way.

Industrial Use

Today, commercial farming is done with tractors, especially row crop tractors. The width of a cultivator can range from 3 m to 24 m. Various kinds of cultivators are used before planting and for pulling out weeds between rows of crops.

Most primary tillage is done with a cultivator that is powered by a power take-off shaft. Cultivators that are used for secondary tillage are often used for primary tillage.

Field cultivators are used to finish tillage jobs and give fields the proper aeration. The main purpose of cultivators is to make a proper seedbed to place the seeds in the soil, get rid of the weeds, and mix the soil so that plants can grow well.

Under the metal frame and the thin rods present are the shanks. The one-to-many hydraulic cylinders, raise and lower and control the depth.

Row Crop Cultivator

The main purpose of row crop cultivators is to get rid of weeds between rows of crops that are already growing. The three-point hitch and gauge wheels are used to control them.

They are sometimes called "sweep cultivators" because they cut weeds off at the roots and turn over the soil.

Garden Cultivator

Small tillers are used in gardens like small commercial garden and household gardens. They help with both the first and second stages of farming. The rotary tiller can both plough and harrow the soil to make a good place to plant the seeds. It can work to stop the weeds from growing between the rows. So, toothed cultivators that a single person can push are used.

The main job of a cultivator is to kill weeds and mix the soil around crops as they grow.

Types of Cultivators

There are four main types of cultivators, namely −

• Disc harrows.

• Tine/Chain harrows.

• Spring Tine Cultivators.

• Rigid Tine Cultivators.

Disc Harrows

Disc harrows are made of heavy metal frame with a row of discs. It is used to get rid of clods, weeds, and any other plants which are unwanted and to loosen up the soil so that it can breathe or drain.

Tine/Chain Harrows

It contains a pattern of small tines and chains that are meant to break up and knock down clods. It is used to bring the bigger clods to the surface. It is done after ploughing to avoid clumping of the soil, pull out the weeds and level the surface of the ground.

Spring Tine Cultivators

These are known as the "all-rounders" in stubble cultivation and for preparing seedbeds and can be used on different types of soil. The cultivator goes in for the majority of row crops.

Rigid Tine Cultivators

They have rigid legs that are attached to the main frame and usually have a kind of spring protection system. They are used to loosen and aerate the soil and prepare seedbeds quickly and cheaply and are also useful for cultivating the subsoil.

Variants and Trademarks

Rototiller

A small rototiller is a tool with a small gasoline engine that rotates the tines. Some of them have power wheels, and others have wheels that control the transport level. There is a device that keeps it from going too fast, which also helps it break up the soil better.

If we use rototiller slowly, we can get better soil. Speed and direction are completely up to the operator. It makes tilling faster than when it is done manually. Unusual surfaces, like tree roots or rocks, can make it hard to control the rototiller and make it go in random directions.

Rotavator

Unlike a rototiller, a rotavator can move forward and backward on its own. It also has a gearbox that lets it move quickly while keeping the rotation of the tines steady, making it easy to handle. Compared to the rototiller, it saves a lot of work.

Mini-tiller

Farmers use this new, small tool that is cheap and easy to use on a small scale. These tools are called power tillers or garden tillers.

Two-wheeler Tractor

Two-wheeler tractor is also known as walk-behind tractors or walking tractors is more useful and can do more than one thing, making them easy to use on different types of soil.

Conclusion

A cultivator is an agricultural tool used to get rid of weeds and make a good place to plant seeds. Cultivators are also used to plough and move the soil out of its place so that the soil can get more air and the seeds can grow properly.

There are mostly four different kinds of cultivators: Disc harrows, tine harrows, spring tine cultivators, and rigid tine cultivators. With the invention of the motor and rotary cultivator, the use of cultivators in farms for commercial purposes became common.

This was a big step forward in the agricultural industry. Now, the cultivators are hooked up to tractors to work on bigger areas in less time.