Ag tire expectations evolving with farming

GREENVILLE, S.C.—Ag tires are a unique breed. They have to be.

Because agriculture requires versatile performance, its tires need to be strong enough to handle the weight of the biggest, heaviest farm equipment. They have to be rugged enough to withstand punctures, cracking and chunking that come from a hard day's work in the fields.

And they have to be gentle, too. Especially on the soil.

That's where the increased flexion and very high flexion technology comes into play.

"One of the benefits of IF, VF technology and the air pressure on the tires is to minimize soil compaction. And to minimize soil compaction, you have to lessen the pressure you put on the ground," Dave Paulk, Balkrishna Industries Ltd.'s (BKT) manager of ag field technical services said during a day-one presentation at the 2023 Clemson University Global Tire Industry Conference in Greenville.

"You want your soil to be porous so it holds water, it holds air and it lets the roots grow. To do that, if you compact the soil to much, what it does it is it restricts root growth and as in this right here, it doesn't let it get down to the nutrients, heavy winds blows it over."

So ag tires are doing that. All of that.

And as they do, the technologies around farm tires are changing rapidly. In part, that's because farming has changed, shaping the expectations around the tires' performance. And the reason behind it, Paulk said, is evident in the story of how farming has evolved.

Sometime around the mid-1960s, tractor sales peaked. From that point forward the industry began to reshape, making a gradual and steady shift from family farming to more industrial farming.

"You can see the evolution," Paulk said. "Back then (about 50 years ago) an average farm was 250-300 acres and an average county had 200 farms in it. Well now, most of the farmers passed away and (their families) sold off the farm. … Now you have three farmers in the county."

Three farmers, yes.

But they're farming nearly all of the land that once belonged to 200 different families.

And that makes for a lot of ground to cover.

So the ag industry did exactly what it had to do to keep up. It grew in size, increased in speed and stepped up its production.

"Equipment got bigger, faster—all the implements have gotten bigger," Paulk said. "They're heavier. Tire manufacturers have had to stay up with this technology because of the equipment getting bigger and bigger as it has."

To this end, IF and VF technologies are critical, Paulk said, pointing to the fact that IF tires carry about 20 percent more weight at the same air pressure of a standard ag tire. VF, meanwhile, will carry about 40 percent more weight.

But it's about more than handling the added weight. It's about weight distribution. And doing so in a way that minimizes the soil compaction because, again, that is essential to maximizing crop yield and quality.

You do that, he said, by increasing the contact patch.

"Increasing the contact area of tires reduces the pressure on the ground," Paulk said. "So, what you want tires to do—kind of like the EV tires—you want more contact patch. With these, you want to get as much contact as you can to spread out the weight of the tractors, the weight of the equipment. So you want a long footprint, you want a wide footprint."

Yes. In a lot of ways, Paulk said, the challenges facing the ag industry aren't unlike the challenges facing the P/LT market with the advent and adoption of EV technology.

Because remember those three farmers tending to all the land once owned by 200 families? Well, they have to get from field to field quickly and efficiently. And they do that, Paulk said, on the road.

"Agricultural tires are made—by and large—for the field," Paulk said. "But they are roaded so much and they are used on the highway so much now that one of the things that is tested now is ride comfort. On tractor tires.

"Noise levels are tested on tractors. If you hire somebody or you are in the tractor cab all day long and you have vibrations of a lot of noise or things like that it drives you crazy. So, testing for farm tires has went almost the way of consumer tires."