Patent ID: 7065945

Claim:
An agricultural seedbed finishing implement comprising: an elongate tongue having a forward end and an opposing rear end, said forward end having a hitch thereon for affixing the implement to a tractor or a primary tillage system, and said rear end affixed to a transverse toolbar; at least two spaced-apart support wheels adjustably affixed to said toolbar and movable between a transport position and a working position; a plurality of soil conditioning rotary reels affixed to said toolbar and engagable with the ground when said support wheels are in said working position, each soil conditioning rotary reel comprising: an elongate support shaft having first and second opposing ends; a plurality of generally circular support plates affixed to and uniformly spaced along the length of said support shaft, said plurality of support plates including two end plates, one adjacent to but spaced from each said first and second ends of said support shaft, each said support plate including a plurality of connection points regularly spaced along the periphery thereof; a plurality of elongate bars affixed to each support plate, said bars being generally rectangular in cross-section and each affixed to one of said plurality of connection points on each said support plate such that a relatively thin generally flat edge of the bar is directed generally radially outward, each said bar containing a helical twist and said connection points in said support plates positioned relative to one another on adjacent support plates such that said bars form a helical cutting edge across a width of the reel, wherein each end of the plurality of elongate bars extends beyond the respective end plate, wherein the plurality of soil conditioning rotary reels are part of a broadcast tillage system having multiple transversely spaced tillage units along a width of the implement, said tillage system including: a main frame structure; and a generally inverted u-shaped support yoke affixed to said first and second ends of each said support shaft such that each said reel may rotate freely within the support yoke, said yoke attached to said frame member such that each said rotary reel trails more than one of the multiple tillage units, and wherein a gap between adjacent rotary reels, as measured from the ends of said elongate bars, is less than a straight-line distance between two adjacent bars on each said reel.