Tractor, harvester IT comes of age
Over the last halfdecade, digital technology has appeared to be the “must-have” for tractor and machinery companies, who believe that bringing IT to tractors and farming will offer its customers huge benefits.
The recently showcased Proceed precision drill can be used to establish cereal crops, canola, sugar/fodder beet, peas, maize and even large seed crops like sunflowers. Interestingly, the company reports that trials in wheat have shown that seed rates can be halved, without any reduction in yield.
Over the three-year development period, numerous trials have taken place in Sweden, the UK, France and Germany.
Lars Thylén, director product management and business development at Väderstad, suggests that by combining the key facets of planting depth-precision, in-row precision, end-of-row precision and seedbed optimisation, the result is a quick, even emergence and vital crop population – where each plant is provided conditions needed to reach full potential.
Post-seeding trials in winter wheat, at a seed rate of 150 seeds/m2, showed an increase of 102% in plant biomass, 72% in root biomass and 62% more shoots per plant, compared to a modern seed drill.
Flagged as a onestop solution for all crops and conditions, the new machine is said to be equally at home on ploughed land, minimum- tillage situations, planting into cover crops or direct drilling. Planting units are arranged in two banks, allowing row spacing of 22.5 or 25cm in cereals. Working in multiples of these numbers, the machine can be set up to drill at 45 or 50cm for beet crops or canola, or pushed out to 75cm for maize, cotton and sunflowers.
Ahead of each row unit, the press wheels are said to be dual-purpose, serving to carry the weight of the machine and also creating soil consolidation for optimal planting conditions. Seed is delivered from a central hopper with a 3,000 litre capacity, with the option of delivering fertiliser during planting via the company’s FH2000 front-mounted hopper system.
Seed metering from the central hopper is by way of a modified version of Vaderstad’s PowerShot singulation system, which takes control of each seed to the soil. Leaving the short seed tube, each seed is received by a stop wheel that ensures optimal seed-to-soil contact at selected depth across the full working width of the drill.
Each row is electronically- driven and controlled using the I-pad-based, E-Control System. This offers functions such as row by row shut off, variable rate application, dynamic tramlining, individual calibration, alongside realtime monitoring and control.
The expected full release date is scheduled for the latter part of 2022.
