Speaker A
Hello. We are at the Russian Field Day 2026 exhibition. Now, we have the opportunity to calmly discuss the MK-12 Razor knife roller. In this video, we will take a closer look at its design and discuss its purpose. And I will try
Explore the MK-12 Razor knife roller's design, functions, and high productivity in mulching and moisture retention on crop stubble.
Key Takeaways
- The MK-12 Razor roller solves difficult mulching tasks, especially for damp and tough sunflower stubble.
- It enhances soil health by spreading residues and sealing moisture close to the surface.
- High productivity and efficient design reduce operational costs and labor needs.
- The machine’s weight and blade design ensure effective soil contact and residue processing on uneven terrain.
- It offers a combined solution for mulching and moisture retention in both autumn and spring seasons.
What the video covers
- The MK-12 Razor knife roller is designed for mulching tough crop residues like autumn sunflowers immediately after harvest.
- It features two working drums that tilt and shred stubble finely, achieving an average residue size of 8 cm.
- The roller evenly spreads shredded crop residues, returning nutrients to the soil and sealing soil capillaries to reduce moisture evaporation.
- Its shallow soil penetration (about 2 cm) combined with a vibrating harrow creates a fine-clod soil structure that retains moisture effectively.
- The machine is effective for chopping green manure and accelerating decomposition by inoculating residues with beneficial bacteria.
- It can mulch unharvested sunflower stubble in spring, combining mulching and moisture retention in a single pass.
- The MK-12 weighs 8 tons, with all weight transferred to thin blades for effective cutting and soil penetration even on uneven fields.
- It achieves high productivity with a 12-meter working width and capacity up to 30 hectares per hour, surpassing wider harrows.
- The roller’s design includes contour-following systems and self-cleaning blades to maintain aggressive operation and consistent field contact.
- Its heavy weight and design enable reliable operation at high speeds, saving fuel and labor costs.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to MK-12 Razor Knife Roller
- 01:51Mulching Tough Sunflower Stubble
- 03:12Chopping Green Manure and Soil Inoculation
- 04:25Spring Mulching and Moisture Retention
- 05:24Advantages of Shallow Soil Penetration
- 06:26High Productivity and Operational Requirements
- 07:31Weight Distribution and Field Adaptability
- 08:51Design Features for Effective Operation
- 10:59Blade Mechanics and Draft Resistance
- 15:47Summary and Future Outlook
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
to share with you the experience we gained during tests of this unit in various regions of our country. We have been producing this unit for 2 years.
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Let's recall the operations it has been involved in. Well, first of all, it's mulching autumn sunflowers immediately after harvest. The operation is quite difficult because sunflower stubble is damp, sometimes even greenish, and hard to shred. Farmers often have to leave
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such stubble until spring because it is simply impossible to chop it in the autumn. But the MK-12 Razor roller solved this problem for us. Right after harvest, thanks to the two working drums, it gets the job done. The first
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drum tilts the stubble and starts damaging it, while the second ensures it is fully shredded. Thanks to this, we achieved excellent quality in the autumn, cutting all the sunflowers and chopping them quite finely. The average size of the resulting stubble residue
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was 8 cm. This is an excellent result. It is also very important that we don't leave those dangerous stumps that could damage the tires of seeders and other equipment used in the spring.
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Essentially, we save money by not destroying the tires of the machinery used in subsequent operations. By the way, customers also note important functions this roller performs, such as spreading crop residues. We evenly spread the shredded sunflowers across the field, allowing the stubble to
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return nutrients to the soil. The second point is that we seal soil capillaries and stop moisture evaporation. This is because our knife roller penetrates the soil to a depth of about 2 cm. We also have a vibrating harrow, which, in turn, loosens the top
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layer of the soil. As a result, a fine-clod structure is created at a depth of 1-2 cm, which reliably seals soil capillaries. Consequently, moisture can penetrate into deeper layers, but it is difficult for it to evaporate back out. Thus, we slow down
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the evaporation process and save moisture. For regions with a risk of autumn drought, this is an extremely important task. A client who uses green manure in their crop rotation told us about another interesting experience.
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He used this machine to chop green manure. And what did he note? Firstly, all the green mass was chopped extremely effectively. And more importantly, our knives penetrated the soil at a shallow depth, creating a certain volume of fine-crumbled soil
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fraction. And this volume, even though it is small, was mixed with the green manure. The result is that we inoculated our entire green manure mass with bacteria capable of mineralizing and decomposing plant residues.
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Consequently, the green manure began to decompose intensively, returning nutrients to the soil and acting effectively as an organic green fertilizer. We encountered a similar situation to the green manure fields on fields where corn was harvested for grain. Obviously, we covered the
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stubble remaining on the surface, but we also mixed plant residues with the fine-crumbled soil fraction, inoculating them with bacteria that accelerated the decomposition of the corn and, accordingly, sped up the return of nutrients to the soil. And, of course, both on green manure fields
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and with corn, the distribution of plant residues is very important, so the harrow always worked at full capacity. And the biggest discovery was the possibility of using this implement for moisture retention on crop stubble, especially sunflower. I already
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mentioned above that this implement can be used to mulch fall sunflowers. But sometimes we don't just fail to mulch it in the fall; we may not even have time to harvest the sunflowers. And so, if we did manage to harvest the
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sunflowers, we won't be able to work the field because it will most likely already be covered in snow. And therefore, this task will inevitably be pushed to the spring period. And so, in the spring, we effectively combine two
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functions at once. This is both mulching the stubble and, at the same time, we are retaining moisture. For those very same reasons, our machine is very heavy. It chops the sunflower on its own and penetrates the soil at a
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shallow depth, creating a fine-crumbled soil fraction. And working in conjunction with the harrow section, we get guaranteed and reliable moisture retention. Moreover, to some extent, this process happens even more correctly than when we work with classic, for example, spike harrows,
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because the moisture retention is extremely shallow. It will be literally 2-3 cm of fine-crumbled soil fraction.
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And we simply do not touch the lower layers. As we know, the deeper we work for moisture retention, the more and deeper we will dry out our soil layer.
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And this means that you might have to plant seeds deeper in the future sowing campaign. Here, by working with such a roller, you are free to choose the depth at which you need to plant the seeds, because the moisture retention
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will be extremely shallow, and that is an incredible advantage of this machine. So, in one spring pass, you'll mulch everything and seal in the moisture.
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It’s a real breakthrough. And in all of this, it’s important to focus on productivity indicators. Here, a 12-meter wide unit has a capacity of up to 30 hectares per hour, which exceeds even very wide harrows that might have
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a 26-meter width but only a maximum capacity of about 26 hectares per hour. So, with 12 meters, the potential here is 4 hectares higher. Of course, we must understand that for this, our tractor needs enough power to pull the
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unit at such speed. And the fields must be more or less level so the operator doesn't lose their mind in the cab.
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Driving at that speed. But the fact remains. At a time when diesel fuel is extremely expensive and we have a labor shortage, we can operate this machine with high productivity. And accordingly, it allows you to complete the volume
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you simply couldn't achieve with other machines. All this work I’ve just described would be impossible without the design features we’re about to discuss. The first thing to talk about is the weight and its distribution.
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This unit weighs 8 tons, and all of that weight rests on the blades of the roller gangs. If you notice, all our wheels are lifted off the field surface in the working position. Not a single wheel will touch the field at any
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moment. And this way, the 8 tons are transferred onto very thin blades, which allows us to guarantee the cutting of even autumn sunflower stubble. And more importantly, we can penetrate the soil to a certain depth.
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Why is this important? Our fields are never perfectly level. There are always ridges, depressions, and gullies. And accordingly, stubble lies within these gullies and depressions. Or if we are sealing moisture, there are areas that we also need to loosen. If we didn't
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have this weight, we would just run over the ridges and completely miss these depressions. And consequently, the stubble located there would remain untouched, and the moisture in those hollows would not be sealed. Here, due to such massive weight, the blades
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penetrate the ridges to a depth of 2-3 cm, having a chance to reach the stubble and loosen the soil in the hollows. As a result, we don't leave any gaps in the field. If we recall the old knife rollers, the water-filled,
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single-row ones used in the Soviet Union and still used in some places in modern Russia, they didn't really provide any predictable quality of tillage. We might chop something in some places or just knock a stalk over in others, but sealing in moisture at
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the same time—well, you could say that was an impossible task for those rollers. But mass can literally solve this problem. And mass is important here not only from the perspective of being able to chop through. It is also
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essential for the unit to be able to operate at the working speed.
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across the field. And, accordingly, again, we wouldn't get any proper tillage. And the third point for which mass is of key importance is, of course , reliability and the quality of the unit, so it can withstand the loads
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placed upon it. Because almost all of this mass is concentrated in these robust frame structures. Wherever you look, everything looks very impressive.
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And continuing the topic of high-speed operation and the absence of gaps, we must mention the contour-following system. We have a special display here at the Russian Field Day exhibition that demonstrates it very well. The first contour-following system is on
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the pendulum suspension of the sections . We suspend the sections using rubber elements, or dampers. Accordingly, as it moves, the section has the ability to longitudinally follow the terrain.
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It swings back and forth—that is how it is implemented. Here we have intentionally tilted the section so that it drops as far forward as possible. And there you can see the contour following. The first roller is significantly lower than the rear
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roller, while right next to it is a section in its normal state that is not currently contouring. So, you can observe the limits of longitudinal contour following right now. The second contour-following system is that each roller battery has two hydraulic
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cylinders, one on the left and one on the right. And, accordingly, if we imagine that we have some obstacle here —which this black line simulates— when the hydraulic cylinder hits this obstacle, it retracts on that side, the section lifts up, and on the other side
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, the section continues moving in its initial position. The third contour-following system kicks in when there is a more global change in the terrain. For example, when you approach the edge of a field and the edge is somewhat higher than the main part of
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the field. In this case, we have a nitrogen accumulator in the central part, which allows us to adjust to either of the two wings. For example, we hit a rise with this wing.
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Accordingly, the nitrogen accumulator activates because increased pressure arises here, pushing the section upward . And consequently, the wing compresses , while this side remains in its original position. And all of this combined. All three contour-following systems allow us to avoid any
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irregularities to the maximum. Now let's talk about the batteries themselves. It used to seem that the larger the knife roller diameter, the better. Well, because with a large diameter, it seems we can pack in more mass, and overall, such a large
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diameter won't get clogged. Well, as it turned out, that actually leads to problems. And even rollers with a very large diameter have low mass in practice. But here, our mass is concentrated not in the batteries themselves, but, as I said, in the
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frame. And the rollers have a super small diameter. People used to be afraid of this, but it turned out to be the future because this small diameter chops super aggressively due to its extremely high peripheral speed. And at
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the same time, it actually has better self-cleaning ability than a large-diameter roller. Because a large roller diameter rolls over so slowly and heavily. But this one just flies at this crazy speed, like a meat grinder.
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And the soil that sticks to the knives, due to, let's say, centrifugal force, simply comes off the blades. And so, we get both self-cleaning and aggressive operation. And this is a really great thing. Therefore, the future now lies
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with small diameters, and there's no need to be afraid of them. Now about the knives. As I said, the entire mass of the roller rests on these working parts, so they perform a crucial function. They must both chop and
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withstand the loads placed upon them. And these loads are very serious. That's why two important factors play a role here. The first factor is that they are manufactured from the most modern steel. This is Hardox 450 using manganese and boron. Therefore, it
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possesses properties of strength, hardness, and most importantly, the property of self-sharpening is added to all of this. And the second important point regarding the knives is that they must brace against this pipe located in the center of the roller. Because if
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such a large mass is applied, relying solely on bolted connections is extremely dangerous. We might start losing these blades during operation because, well, the bolts could shear off, and a blade would just end up lying somewhere in the field. But our
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blades don't actually transfer the load onto the bolts. The blades press against the central part of the pipe, so the bolt just secures the blade to the gang, while the load is transferred to this cylinder here, where I am
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pointing now. Now let's talk about the roller’s harrow attachment. It consists of three rows of tine sections . And the working tool of the tine section is a tooth with a diameter of 14 mm. This is our favorite tooth
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because at just 12 km/h it starts to vibrate intensely, and consequently, perform its job. It stirs up crop residues in the field and loosens the top layer of soil, which is important when we're retaining moisture or when it's desirable to do so, for example,
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as an auxiliary operation when mulching sunflowers in the fall. This section has a very simple adjustment. There is essentially only one—by simply repositioning the pin mechanism, we change the tooth's angle of attack. By changing the position of the lever, you
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change the aggressiveness of the tooth. The more intensely the tooth works, the more loose soil fraction you create on the surface, and the more intensively you stir the crop residues. When you want to achieve faster decomposition, of course, you need to set the tooth to
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a more aggressive position. But if you want to reduce draft resistance and work at higher speeds, then, on the contrary, retract the tooth and work with almost no engagement. And, by the way, the tooth can be completely disengaged if you use the special
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adjustment located closer to the main frame of the implement. You can simply lift all the teeth off the surface and fly along at maximum operating speed if you don't need this stirring and distribution of crop residues.
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Operating this machine requires a tractor with at least 280 horsepower. And this machine connects to the tractor using a drawbar hitch for a 50 mm pin. Let's summarize. This unit turned out to be very interesting because it suits both no-till farming
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and conventional tillage systems, as both face issues with high-stalk crop residues that need to be mulched. At the same time, this unit does not cause any significant changes to the soil structure. Even though the blades penetrate the soil surface, they only
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create minor loosening, which accelerates the decomposition process of crop residues. But again, we are not seriously disrupting the soil structure , and you could say we aren't disrupting it at all. Therefore, both those working in No-till, who monitor
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this closely, and those using traditional tillage will be satisfied here, because for the latter, soil structure changes are not a priority, or may even be considered a plus. And if we can make their subsequent operations easier, that will be a huge
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benefit for them. And in principle, as you can see, the range of applications for this implement is quite broad.
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It’s not what it seems at first glance, because initially everyone thinks this implement is only suitable for mulching sunflowers. But it turns out we can also process cover crops and use it to conserve soil moisture.
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Overall, it turns out to be an implement for every occasion when we need very, very shallow tillage, where working with crop residues is primarily important. And first and foremost, the reason for purchasing this machine for you will be the issue of crop residues.
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From tall-stemmed crops like sunflowers and corn. While operations like moisture conservation or cover crop processing will become secondary. Of course, you can come up with a number of other operations where this implement will come in handy. For example, it could be leveling crop
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residues, or rather, not even residues, but crops that we failed to harvest for some reason. It happens that sunflowers aren't just left untilled in the fall, but are simply not harvested at all and remain through the winter. Then they
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stand in the field in spring with the heads still on, and it becomes problematic for other implements to enter the field. This implement will go in, simply knock everything down, chop it up, and allow us to carry out the
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planting campaign for the next crop. It turns out the machine has massive potential and very high performance, so I strongly recommend you take a closer look at it. Perhaps your farm and your specific conditions will find a use for
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it. Well, that concludes our review. If you still have any questions, please ask them in the comments. We will definitely answer everything. And now it is time for me to say goodbye.
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Topics:MK-12 Razorknife rollermulchingsunflower stubblesoil moisture retentioncrop residue managementagricultural machineryhigh productivitysoil healthRussian Field Day 2026
