A ‘supreme’ drill with high outputs and impressive forward speeds - even at high seed rates
Darren Young runs a contracting business based near Aberdeen, each year sowing up to 3000 acres using two Amazone Avant combination drills. His most recent purchase is an Amazone Avant 4002-2 seed rail in combination with a KG 4002-2 power harrow and FTender 2200-C split tank front hopper.
As a contractor, Darren has to accommodate a wide range of soil types and, as with many Scottish soils, stones can cause issues, which is why it’s important to him to have a machine that can cope with a large amount of rough going. So in 2014, Darren purchased his first Amazone drill, an Avant with FPS split hopper and RoTeC coulters shortly followed by a second machine, albeit second hand, in 2015. 10 years on and the 2014 machine is still out there clocking up the acres and along with Darren’s comment of “We’ve barely had to put a spanner to it”. An impressive feat considering the rock-laden location and the number of acres drilled, yet no problem for an Amazone power harrow combination.
When deciding on the purchase of the new machine, Darren decided to change to the TwinTeC parallelogram seed coulters and he is more than happy with the build quality and durability, “It is the precise seed depth that we are able to maintain across a wide variety of soil types that is the big advantage – and without having to take a spanner or grease gun to the coulters at all”.
The pressurised front hopper has also been a big bonus for Darren, with minimal fertiliser dust and so keeping the tractor clean, a real win-win when the tank is on the front of the tractor. “The tank is always clean” comments Darren, “and there also are huge benefits in foggy weather and in keeping the moisture away from the product. With previous drills in the fog, we were unable to drill because it blocked everything up but with the sealed front tank there have been no issues”. And regarding the machine’s handling, “Coupled with the TwinTerminal, calibration is a breeze without having to get in and out the cab, there’s no messing about and with just the push of a few buttons you can get calibrated with ease”.
The ability to distribute the product fast enough was of extreme importance when going into the buying process but, to date, Darren has been very happy with the output of the machine. “Even with the high rates of seed and fertiliser that we use here in North-East Scotland”, notes Darren, “We can still get those high forward speeds”. When drilling at 360 kg/ha of fertiliser and 230 kg/ha of seed, the Avant combination is still able to do around 11 km/h which, in view of the weather this Spring, has been extremely pleasing. “If I hadn’t had the high output of this drill, I don’t think we would’ve been able to be as far forward with the drilling as we are,” comments Darren, further adding “I think we will be having another one in the future”.
