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Grain+Fert combination to be launched at 2010 Royal Highland Show
22 June 2010
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Amazone launch Grain+Fert system at 2010 Royal Highland Show
Amazone will take the opportunity at the 2010 Royal Highland Show to show off their new Grain+Fert drill combination. Although many farmers are utilising Amazone’s renowned sowing technology to establish crops north of the border the solutions for fertiliser have, to date, been dealer fitted.
The need for the more northerly farmer to apply fertiliser when sowing spring planted cereals is well documented. With shorter days in the spring and the need to bring forward the harvest as much as possible then the crop needs to be given the best start in life. A supply of NPK fertiliser sown in the row along with the seed ensures an enhanced germination to get the crop off, not only to a flying start, but also to continue growing through the season. It also helps prevent Manganese deficiency in the developing crop.
There are various schools of thought with regard to the placement of the fertiliser; either sown in between the rows of seed or spread into the seedbed surface in the vicinity of the seed and cultivated in during the seedbed preparation. However, the most commonly preferred method is sowing both down the same seed row in the coulter.
The sizes of field and the mainly plough-based cultivation techniques that are predominantly seen in Scotland dictate that the power harrow drill combination still makes up the majority of the crop establishment systems used and with fertiliser application rates around the 375 kg/ha there is still the need to maintain output rates without too much downtime. It is here then that hopper capacity, particularly of that of the fertiliser hopper, needs to be as big as possible to prevent numerous fill-ups that can result in too much non-drilling time. With mainly mounted machines used to provide the best manoeuvrability, and tractors limited as to what they can carry on the rear linkage, it makes sense to split the combination between front & rear mounted hoppers to maintain balance and stability on steep ground.
Now available as a factory fitted option in either 3m or 4m working widths, the new Grain+Fert combination will be on Avenue T, Stand 336 at the RHS. The combination consists of, on the front, a FPS104 front tank, where its 2000 litre hopper is carried in work on a steering tyre packer that adds consolidation to the area between the tractor wheels, ahead of, on the rear, an AD-P Super wedge ring roller combination, also with a 2000 litre seed hopper. The fertiliser is transferred from the front tank to a second distribution head mounted alongside the seed head that meters the fertiliser down to each Ro-TeC+ single disc coulter set on 12.5cm row spacing. The bolt-on fertiliser entry pipe is manufactured from stainless steel and runs outside of the standard coulter to prevent any corrosion problems and the metering systems are also fertiliser-proof.
If required, the fertiliser system can also be offered with ‘tramline’ kit to prevent fertiliser wastage that can amount up to 3% or 11kg/ha on a 24m tramline system.