SIMA 2017

Officially on Stands B 035 and C 032, but basically across a big chunk of Hall 5A, Amazone will be using this year’s SIMA Show in Paris to showcase a host of new products and innovations and so, to help you get to grips with the new technology on offer, Amazone Ltd staff will be present on the stand from Sunday through to Tuesday evening.

The highlight of the Show will be the new Cataya power harrow / conventional drill combination which uses a radical approach to gravity, peg wheel metering systems combined with state-of-the-art control technology. The half-side, automatic headland shut-off via GPS-Switch, the 1270 litre seed tank, the electrically-driven Precis metering system are impressive, plus the SmartCenter operator station that makes calibration, hopper emptying and seed variety switchover so simple – and of course all talking via ISOBUS communication and utilising the now well-known, TwinTerminal 3.0; not to mention the collapsing plastic calibration bucket, they’ve thought of everything. The Cataya seed drill sits astride the new 01 series rotary harrows and rotary cultivators with packer roller guided levelling boards, centralised adjustment station and a vast new choice of packer rollers to cope with wet or dry, heavy or light and stony conditions. Seed placement is either via the new TwinTeC double disc coulter or the renowned RoTeC. The Cataya will come to Britain later in the year, so watch out for it at the summer shows.

When it comes to talking TwinTeC, the Cirrus 6003-2C will feature the big brother TwinTeC⁺ which is bigger, heavier and meatier than that on the Cataya to cope with the higher forward speeds and greater outputs demanded of the trailed Cirrus.

For the sprayers, the new 2017 model Pantera 4502 Tier IV self-propelled will be shown in Pantera-H mode for high-clearance sunflower work. The new model Pantera features a host of improved operator creature comforts, faster filling times, perkier drive lines, different hill climb options in the Pantera⁺, faster-folding, stronger booms, more widths and folding options for contractors; these are to name but a few of the salient points. And on the boom will be HeightSelect, the SIMA Innovations Award merit winning, new automatic height control system that recognises the nozzle selection made in AmaSelect and then lowers the boom automatically to the correct ride height in the field – now that’s clever!

With everybody looking at stale seedbed preparation and wanting high work rates of shallow stubble tillage, the Catros range has expanded rapidly in the last 12 months. Firstly saw the introduction of the neatly-folding Catros⁺ 12003-2TS 12 metre standard compact disc harrow and this is now joined by the Catros Special, a new lightweight 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 metre rigid range for the smaller tractor as well as the Catros⁺ x003-2TX in 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 metre widths. This gives now 17 different Catros models, mostly all with a choice of 460 mm smooth or 510 mm serrated discs depending on the application. For deeper, heavier situations, then the Certos heavy compact disc harrow fills the gap between the Catros and the Cenius tined mulch cultivators which are designed with top soil deep loosening in mind. The new C-Mix Clip pin-on wearing metal system is also to be seen at SIMA for the first time and which will revolutionise share changing on the Cenius. More rollers also come into the passive soil tillage world, especially with the new DW600 disc roller for those with heavy going.

There will be ploughs galore with the S-Force stone release system on the Cayron as well as a new slatted mouldboard plus the complete Cayros range which is already on the move with new depth wheels and extra mouldboards being added to the range launched just weeks ago.

Automatic, GPS-based SectionControl continues to develop in every field – ZA-TS spreaders now come with DynamicSpread with 128 sections, the new ZA-V Hydro, also to be showcased in Paris, has 16 sections to offer as well as the AmaSwitch and AmaSelect individual nozzle shut-off on sprayers and half-width drill shut-offs. Having these many more part-width sections brings chemical and fertiliser wastage tumbling down, cutting input costs and helping to protect the environment. AmaSwitch can knock 5% off your chemical bill.

And don’t forget that this is an Agritechnica year - so this is just the tip of the iceberg as we start to see a plethora of kit to be galloping out of the starting blocks as we go through 2017; so make it your business to come and meet the crop establishment specialists in Hall 5A this weekend.