Hoe, Rotary

a machine for breaking up the soil crust in fields planted with grain and industrial crops, for killing weeds, for presowing tillage of soil, and for thinning sugar beet sprouts. The rotary hoe used in the USSR consists of several sections of revolving spike-toothed disks interconnected by a frame with a mounting. As the toothed disks rotate and roll over the surface of the soil, they puncture it without raising the lower soil layers to the surface. Rotary hoes may also be used for harrowing if they are combined with a drag beam and a light harrow.

The operating width of a rotary hoe is 2.8 m, and the tillage depth for breaking up soil crust and killing weeds reaches 8 cm (for thinning sprouts and presowing tillage of soil it is 4—6 cm). Rotary hoes are combined with tractors of the 0.6-ton class.