The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Horsch adds sizes to top disc coulter drill
One of the UK’S most popular disc coulter drills for no-tillage crop establishment has been developed in larger sizes to offer increased output for contractors and large growers.
The Horsch Avatar SD has single-disc openers to open a slot for the seed to drop into, with a rubber wheel alongside providing accurate depth control, and an integral press wheel and covering disc ensuring there is good seed-to-soil contact for reliable germination.
This set-up, with the assembly mounted simply on a trailing arm clamped to the frame with rubber inserts providing some suspension, is proving popular, especially farmers growing cover crops who find the drill works well sowing grain when there is a large volume of surface vegetation to cope with.
The Avatar comes in two formats – the standard in 6m to 8m widths with the seed hopper carried on the two-row coulter frame with 125mm seed row spacing.
Then there is the seed cart layout with coulters arranged in a single row at 250mm spacing and mounted on the back of a larger capacity hopper.
It’s the latter arrangement that has come in for attention. Originally introduced as a 12m drill, there are now 8m (32-row), 9m (36-row) and 10m (40-row) versions with 6,400 litres of seed capacity to cover a lot of ground with each fill.
Stephen Burcham, Horsch UK general manager, said: “The 25cm row spacing is proving popular with the 12m model; customers report little or no detriment in yield in most crops, particularly in winter crops, yet lower input costs.”
Apart from outright seed capacity, the new models feature a versatile ‘triple compartment’ hopper split 60:10:30 to apply two fertilisers or a combination of different inputs to suit the crop being grown.
Fertiliser application predrilling is the focus of a new combination from Pottinger that aims to trim fuel, manpower and other costs.
It comprises the manufacturer’s Terria tine stubble cultivator equipped with fertiliser distribution equipment and the Amico F tractor frontmounted hopper for carrying fertiliser supplies.
The aim is to perform cultivation and apply and incorporate a fertiliser dressing at the same time – operations that would normally be done separately.
Given the Terria’s ability to loosen soils through a range of depths, the fertiliser application system piggy-backing on the tines can be adapted to place it where required.
There are three settings in all to allow for shallow stubble cultivation and deep soil loosening, for which the machine is available with different share and wing combinations.
The Terria is available in three trailed widths of 4m, 5m and 6m with break-back chisel tines arranged in four rows around 300mm apart for good trash clearance.