Sky Agriculture launches Sky Sonic precision planter

Headquartered in north-west France at Chateauborg, the company specialises in cultivation, seed and fertiliser application, with a wide portfolio of machinery.

Recently launched, the company’s nextgeneration precision planter, the Sky Sonic is said to achieve seed placement accuracy over 99%, operating at speeds exceeding 12km/hr.

Available in six to nine row telescopic versions, or eight to twelve row folding versions, the Sonic integrates the RowMotion system as standard.

This allows row spacing to be modified in the field when changing crops without needing to disassemble any units, while also allowing some row units to be hydraulically lifted, allowing planting over a partial number of rows. This might see an operator drilling maize at 75 cm in the morning, followed by a switch to beans at 50 cm in the afternoon, without the need for tools.

The reduced angle of the double discsset at 9 degrees, rather than the more typical 12degrees- minimises soil disturbance and is complemented by a finely tuned vacuum system to ensure optimum seed positioning, with no bounce or projection, even for the lightest species such as rapeseed, sunflower or beet. The retractable press wheel layout can be adjusted to suit specific conditions particularly in wet soils - to allow increased flexibility during the drilling season.

Offering hydraulic downforce of up to 350 kg per seeding unit, penetration and planting depth are optimized, even in difficult conditions, while an optional load transfer system, allows increased weight from the tractor, guaranteeing efficiency on all types of soil.

A high level of standard equipment includes floating, parallelogram-mounted debris catchers, turbo discs for direct seeding, and double-dispensing micro-granulators to allow companion cropping. Full ISOBUS compatibility offers section cut-off, seed rate modulation and an integrated fertiliser hopper as required.