The Alliance Agristar 374, a new R-2 radial tire for muddy rice and sugar cane fields from the Alliance Tire Group, combines deep-lug traction with excellent roadability. With its unique tread bar design—more than 3 inches deep—the new tire features a pair of "step" reinforcements to reduce lug movement and heat buildup while delivering the tractor's torque to soft ground. This stable footprint exerts great traction in mud and even, long-lasting performance on the road. The Alliance Agristar 374 lug also features a flat tread profile, as well as a wide nose that creates a dense center line to keep the tire steady and smooth on the road while minimizing irregular tread wear from pavement.

Though the cutting and harvesting of timber is the primary concern of logging operations, the protection of the forest floor from heavy equipment is also a priority for forward-thinking operations. Increasingly large and powerful logging machinery could cause damage to the ground and rip up the root map, slowing the time it takes for the forest to regenerate, reducing the rate of biomass production (resulting in less income), and making landowners unhappy. Fortunately for loggers—and forests—the use of flotation forestry tires is a simple way to minimize compaction and rutting.

In my role as the National Agriculture Product Manager for Alliance Tire Group, one of the most frequent questions I receive is how to pick the perfect set of tires for a tractor. With so many different technologies, tread patterns, and features available on today’s tires, in addition to a whole host of other variables, it’s easy to see how customers can get bogged down when searching through a company’s catalog. However, over the years, I’ve developed a simple process for finding just the right tractor tire for you.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” - Robert Burns

Since the development and introduction of IF, then VF, tire technology nearly a decade ago, more and more farmers have been using them as a way to offset withering profits caused by low commodity prices and increasing input costs. Farmers fighting against tighter profit margins can increase their yields with high-tech tires like our AgriFlex line of IF/VF tires, and now the question begs to be asked: are IF/VF the future of farm tires?