Thursday, 29 August 2019 11:16

Drill creates amazing maze

Written by  Mark Daniel

A British contractor recently demonstrated the capabilities of precision machinery in modern farming.

Using an 8-row Kuhn Maxima 3TL E-drill and RTK-GPS guidance, Michael Tomlinson created a 4ha maize maze at the National Forest Adventure Farm in Staffordshire.

The maze, its theme celebrating 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing, was crafted in a single pass without manual intervention.

Tomlinson has done similar projects for 15 years, drilling a crop in two directions then marking the pattern with canes before manual hoeing. But this season it was much easier using the precision drill’s electronic section control and variable row width adjustments to get a new level of creativity.

“We took the design to a specialist, who wrote the software to allow us to use the drill to create the desired pattern,” Tomlinson said. 

“We set the drill at 37.5 cm row spacing and used twice the normal seed rate. Using autosteer, electronic section control and RTK guidance to 1cm accuracy we created the maze and ended up with a spectacular result.”

In real life Tomlinson sows about 400ha of maize and fodder beet in the area. He says the drill’s accuracy of placement saves seed, cuts operator stress and results in a mature crop that’s easier to harvest. 

The drill’s arrival, with its row selection control, variable row width and an integral micro-granular fertiliser applicator, will also help extend his seeding season for other crops such as canola.

More like this

Disc mower range gets upgrade

Kuhn has announced an expansion of its range of disc mowers, distributed by Norwood in New Zealand, with the addition of two new vertically folding rear mounted models, the GMD 3515 and GMD 4015.

Kuhn unveils 14.5m mower for high HP harvesters

With most forage harvester manufacturers offering machines touching 1000hp, the logistics puzzle has always been ‘dropping” grass and pulling into a swath big enough to feed the “beast”.

Cuddling cows

OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its cows and instead charge visitors to cuddle them.

Kuhn bags tech award

French company KUHN has won a EIMA Technical Innovation Award for its Baler Automation Technology.

Wide rakes offer stability

Grassland specialist Kuhn’s Gyrorake GA 8731+ and GA 9531+ models are described as “large width” semi-mounted rakes with central delivery.

Featured

$2b boost in NZ exports to EU

New Zealand’s trade with the European Union has jumped $2 billion since a free trade deal entered into force in May last year.

US tariffs hit European ag machinery markets

The climate of uncertainty and market fragmentation that currently characterises the global economy suggests that many of the European agricultural machinery manufacturers will be looking for new markets.

Tributes paid to Jim Bolger

Dignitaries from  all walks of life – the governor general,  politicians past and present, Maoridom- including the Maori Queen, church leaders, the primary sector and family and  friends packed Our Lady of Kapiti’s Catholic church in Paraparaumu on Thursday October 23 to pay tribute to former prime Minister, Jim Bolger who died last week.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Red faced

OPINION: The Greens have taken the high moral ground on the Palestine issue and been leading political agitators in related…

Cold comfort

One of the most galling aspects of the tariffs whacked on our farm exports to the US is the fact…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter