English
Lloyd Ltd bring the Amazone Tillage Roadshow up to the north east
Against a backdrop of three newly constructed wind turbines, several thousand horse power packed underneath the blue bonneted New Holland tractor fleet provided the wherewithal to black over some 60 acres of prime north eastern dirt.
The site was based on two fields, one for showing off the Amazone sprayer range and the second to be drilled with a first wheat as part of the demonstration. On display in the first field was the new UX4200 Super trailed sprayer and the UF1801 mounted sprayer with front tank. The field was slightly rolling and so offered ample opportunity on both sprayers to switch on the Distance-Control automatic boom height regulation and let the electronics take over the height above crop adjustment. With its steering axle system and electronic tracking, the compact 4600 litre tank UX proved to be highly manoeuvrable and the 28m boom stay glued to the contours as the sprayer ran up and across last year's tramlines at speeds of up to 20 km/h.
The area of virgin stubble left for sprayer demonstration was gradually eroded as the 4 cultivators made short work of the wheat stubble. With the new trailed Catros+ 6001-2T initially pulling up the stubble to promote chitting of weed seeds and volunteers, the secondary cultivation was provided, depending on farm size, by either the Centaur 4001-2 Super trailed tine and disc combination cultivator or the new Cenius linkage mounted mulch cultivator.
An area had been ploughed the day before and on this heavy land site it was obvious to all that attended how difficult seedbed preparation can be following the plough. The min-till cultivated plots soon provided a cheap fine seedbed with little effort, whereas the ploughed plots were hungry for multiple passes costing time and diesel as farmers look to cheapen establishment costs.
Over the hedge, the second field coming out of rape the previous year, had been cultivated once over with the Catros compact disc harrow the day before. This fine tilth was then ideal for the following wheat crop, and with rain hovering around the area, the 6m Cayena tine seeder and the 4m Cirrus min-till cultivator drill were soon set up to drill at 360 seeds/sq.m. With 10m of drilling width on the go, the 30 acres was nicely finished before the rains fell.
With an impressive hog roast on offer all day our thanks go to Lloyd Ltd for the effort that was put in to making the day thought-provoking for those attending. Cutting establishment costs is still the main talking point with arable farmers and modern cultivation tackle can offer a cost-effective solution to speed up the operation whilst at the same time improving soil structure and seedbed quality.