On the horizon

German company NeXaT GmbH won the DLG Agritechnica Gold Medal award for its unique NeXaT, which is a carrier vehicle that can carry all implements needed for tillage work.

This saves time and money compared to travelling to fields each time with a tractor and implement but is essentially designed for larger arable farmers.

With the 12-metre version, the system is designed such that 95% of the total field area is never driven on in the envisaged bed mode, resulting in high yield potentials with good soil and environmental protection.

The NeXaT is designed as an autonomous working machine, equipped with a peripheral monitoring system. A cab that can be rotated by 270° is available for process monitoring. This establishes the basis for fully automated machine operation and enables manual vehicle guidance during transport. The integrated implements are mounted between the four large, electrically-driven track running gear units, which can be rotated by 90° for travelling by road. At present, power is supplied by two independent diesel engines, each offering an output of 400 kW/545 hp, with generators. The vehicle is designed for alternative drive technologies such as fuel cells.

With the integrated NexCo combine harvester module, the NeXaT achieves grain throughputs of 130-200 tonnes per hour. The innovative dual axial flow concept uses a 5.8m long axial rotor mounted transverse to the direction of travel.

The flow of harvested material is introduced centrally into the rotor and at a tangent to achieve energy

cooperative with operations from field to fork, began testing the commercial viability of green fertilizers in 2019 with a common goal to realize the world’s first fossil free food chain.

The collaboration has resulted in a commercial contract for green fertilizers, which will be produced by Yara and marketed by Lantmännen in Sweden starting in 2023.

Instead of using fossil fuels such as natural gas to produce ammonia – the building block of mineral fertilizers – the green fertilizers will be produced with ammonia based on renewable energy produced in Europe, such as Norwegian hydropower. The result will be fertilizers with an 80 to 90 percent lower carbon footprint. Yara has a portfolio of green ammonia projects, which will be key to producing green fertilizers, in Norway, the Netherlands and Australia, and is working actively to expand its clean ammonia business.

A new take on an established idea

efficiency. The rotor divides it into two material flows. This enables roughly twice the threshing performance of conventional machines and establishes the prerequisite for uniform straw and chaff distribution with two choppers, even with a cutting width of 14 metres.

Grain delivery is ensured by a 32m³ grain bunker, as a result of which the combine harvester unit does not require a transfer vehicle on normal-length fields. Transfer to the transport vehicle can take place on the headland with an unloading capacity of 600 litres per second.

Does this remind readers of a certain age of anything?

First commercial agreement for fossil free fertilisers

Yara, a leading global fertilizer producer, and Lantmännen, northern Europe’s leading agricultural “Our partnership with Lantmännen to bring green fertilizers to market is crucial for decarbonizing the food value chain. We have to transform the food system to deliver on the Paris Agreement, and this will require collaboration across the entire food chain instead of working in silos. The Yara-Lantmännen partnership is a concrete example of how this can be done,” says Svein Tore Holsether, President and CEO of Yara.