The 250,000th Amazone drill sold

The origin of the seed drill’s history stretches back to 1947, when Dipl. Eng. Heinrich Dreyer worked together with Mr Kademann to develop the first D1 seed drill that had a working width of 2 m and which was equipped with the innovative Elite seed wheel for and easy switch between fine and normal seeds. This seed drill revolutionised the drilling of catch crops because, unlike other seed drills of that time, the D1 didn’t need the seed wheels to be constantly changed.

1966 saw an active seed drill combination launched onto the market for the first time ever in the form of the legendary D4 seed drill combined with an RE reciprocating harrow. The Royal Show 1984 saw the 100,000th drill on display with a D7/30ECN drill When the RPD 301 DrillStar was launched in 1988, Amazone offered the first tyre packer roller as an alternative to either a cage roller or tooth packer roller. The tyre packer roller offered targeted reconsolidation just to the seed row, which was further optimised with the invention of the wedge ring roller in 1998. The latest development in the field of conventional seed drill combinations is the Cataya, which features a precise metering system, electrically-driven seed shaft and a central SmartCentre enabling the quick adjustment of the metering system and comfortable calibration.

In addition to the range of conventional seed drills, pneumatic drills were added to the product range in 1995. The foundation was laid with a pneumatic front tyre packer seed tank in combination with a rotary cultivator and a tyre packer seed rail. This was followed by developments such as the renowned AD-P pneumatic harrow-mounted seed drill and then further updates and optimisation took place that has gone towards the technology found today behind the Centaya. The Centaya has an electrically-driven seed metering unit and can be equipped with a choice of TwinTeC⁺ double disc coulters or RoTeC pro single disc coulters.

To meet the demand for higher output seed drill combinations that work in conjunction with non-PTO driven soil tillage implements, the Cirrus pneumatic large-area seed drill, which features passive soil working tools and comes in with working widths of 3 m to 6 m, was introduced in 2001. The flagship of this model range is the recently launched Cirrus-CC which is equipped with a 4,000 l pressurised tank with two electrically-driven metering units and an additional conveying system that enables two different materials to be transferred simultaneously as a double-shoot process.

Prof. h.c. Univ. Samara R A S Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinz Dreyer managed to achieve another milestone with the introduction of the NT direct seed drill and its successor, the Primera DMC for direct, mulch and conventional seeding. The invention of the chisel opener made it possible from then on to carry out direct seeding across a variety unworked soils types. In addition to the Primera DMC, the range of large-area seed drills has been extended in the last decade by the introduction of the Cayena and Condor tine seed drills. Due to their special sowing coulters, and the large working widths of up to 15 m, both seed drills can be used to achieve high outputs on an extremely wide variety of soils.

This huge product portfolio allows Amazone to offer its customers a very broad range of seed drills and sowing methods in working widths ranging from 2.5 m to 15 m for a whole host of operational sizes and soil structures. 

Heres to the next 250,000 drills.