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Sprayer chiefs (from left) Graham Gleed, area export manager KG Group; Dimo Dimov, product manager KV; and Geoff Maber, managing director Power Farming.
Now part of the Kubota Corporation, machinery manufacturer Kverneland is on a roll, particularly with new products coming to market.
This was seen at the recent South Island Agricultural Fieldays, where distributor Power Farming showed the latest addition to the KV sprayer ranges.
The KV iXtrack T3 is a futuristic-looking trailed sprayer available now in 2600 to 3200L tank capacities, and coming soon the T4 with capacity of 4600L.
The frame design is short and compact, with a low centre of gravity allowing close coupling to the tractor and making it suitable for low horsepower units.
Up front, the drawbar is reversible, allowing conventional drawbar hitching, or by swapping over to a high-hitch configuration you can increase crop clearance.
The tank configuration is such that after use residual spay is no more than 30L. Meanwhile, the unit also has a 340L freshwater tank and a hand wash unit of 32L, extendable (optionally) to 460 and 70L.
A choice of piston-membrane pumps offers outputs of 270 to 520 L/min, the latter using a twin-pump configuration. This feeds liquid to the boom assembly that is mounted on a suspended parallelogram frame using a hydraulic-over-nitrogen accumulator set-up.
Dependent on preference, booms are 3-D triangular construction in steel or aluminium, with the former offered in widths from 18 to 30m and the latter in 21 to 24m sizes.
Booms also have the maker’s Boom Guide Pro control system that uses three ultrasonic sensors to automatically control spraying height. This system has three operating modes: crop mode for constant height above the plants, field mode for constant height above the ground, or hybrid mode with a working height based on the average of both values.
Nozzle set-up is the KV Tri-Jet configuration, allowing easy change for differing spray volumes.
There is also the option to choose individual nozzle switches for controlled applications, e.g. using nine switchable nozzles over a 24m spraying width.
Control systems use ISOBUS connectivity on all models, offering easy control of liquid management, and the iXclean PRO function takes care of all cleaning and rinsing functions from the tractor seat.
For drivers working in multiple crop types, track width can be adjusted between 1.5 and 2.25m in 5cm increments.
A large cut-away in the spray tank allows the fitment of tyres up to 1.9m tall under the standard mudguards.
And the steering system allows a steering angle of up to 32 degrees, which helps achieve a tight 3.5m steering radius.
Taking up a considerable portion of the Power Farming site at the recent South Island Agricultural Field Days near Christchurch, the Kverneland Qualidisc 21000T trailed compact disc harrow, the first sold in the southern hemisphere, has a working width of 12.25m.
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