No-tillers often perform a balancing act when it comes to ag machinery and implement tire selection. 

With several older and newer technologies available — including standard radial, improved flexion (IF), very high flexion (VF), cyclic field operation (CFO) and high flotation — growers have multiple options to address trends affecting recent tire designs: soil compaction, stubble damage and the increasing size of farm equipment.

Whereas farmers once required mostly high-traction tires, now a larger footprint that provides both traction and flotation is the key requisite. They also want tires to help reduce compaction and stand up to stubble in corn fields populated with jagged stalks produced by high-yielding, genetically modified hybrids. 

Other considerations may also include lowering fuel consumption and the total cost of ownership.

“Every year, farm machinery is getting heavier and faster and those big pieces of equipment still have to roll across the fields,” says Scott Sloan, product manager for Titan International. “You don’t want to be running on pizza cutters.”

Compaction Hurts Yield

In general, soil compaction is something to be avoided, but specifically most discussion about compaction centers around pinch rows, those rows directly under the tractor and planter. This is…