Kverneland Headland News Issue 30

Issue 30

Headland news

WHEN FARMING MEANS BUSINESS

Welcome to Issue 30

140 years of Kverneland history

The current level of uncertainty that our industry is experiencing is unique, in recent times.

Issues of trade and farm subsidy payments linked to ongoing Brexit negotiations, availability of suitable labour, extreme weather patterns and global trade friction, all create a business environment that makes planning a very complex and difficult process.

One thing we can be certain of is that the population of the UK and the world at large will continue to need a supply of food. While many others may debate all the issues referred to above, our industry is responsible for ensuring the land we farm and the way in which we produce food, is both profitable and sustainable.

Year on year we see a move to more intelligent and efficient farming systems, and providing our customers with the tools they need to meet these demands is the key driver in our business. ISOBUS, developed by the Kverneland Group for the agricultural machinery industry, together with our smart farming systems, are increasingly important tools to both simplify and enhance the way in which our machines add value to your business.

2019 marks a significant milestone for the Kverneland Group – it will be 140 years since Ole Gabriel Kverneland started his engineering business with the production of scythes, sickles and knives.

Based in the village of Kvernaland, 25km from Stavanger, Norway, OG Kverneland Fabrik can be counted as one of those agri-businesses that has been capable of withstanding the test of time.

The first plough was developed in 1882, and the development of heavier equipment soon followed to suit larger farms equipped with horses.

Today, the business is an internationally recognised company and brand, producing a wide range of arable and

grassland machinery that also encompasses precision farming technology.

Keep up-to-date with Kverneland celebrations through the Kverneland website and Facebook page, to see our vision and the future of farming as we plan for the next 140 years.

1879 2019

Over the last 140 years, the Kverneland Group has been responsible for bringing many innovations to the market and this latest edition of Headland News highlights how these have benefitted our customers.

Joe Bell

Managing Director

2019 Show Dates Scotgrass, Acrehead Farm, Crichton Royal, Dumfries - May 15 Royal Highland Show Ingliston, Edinburgh - June 20-23 Royal Welsh Show Llanelwedd, Builth Wells - July 22-25 UK Dairy Day The International Centre, Telford, Shropshire - Sept 11 AgriScot Ingliston, Edinburgh - Nov 20

More choice for beet growers Kverneland’s range of precision seeding equipment continues to grow and the Unicorn model now sits alongside the proven Monopill, to offer yet further choice for growers.

seeder is available in working widths from 2.7-12m, carrying from six to 24 rows. Rigid toolbar versions extend to 24 rows, while hydraulic folding toolbars can carry up to 18 units.

Unicorn favours a mechanical seed pickup system, which is suited to pelleted seeds such as beet, rape and chicory. The

Available in mulch seeding format, the Unicorn is also suitable for use within no-till establishment systems.

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Unicorn features e-drive II, and advanced technology includes section control and GEOSEED capabilities, plus ISOBUS control.

Like other precision seeding equipment in the Kverneland range, the Unicorn can be combined with the ISOBUS compatible iXtra LiFe front tank for liquid fertiliser applications.

Three-year power harrow warranty Following the transfer of power harrow production to the Soest factory in Germany, all Kverneland power harrows are now available with a three-year parts and labour warranty. This offer is available on all models, including NG-M, NG-S and H-series, and also includes folding power harrow versions.

The second year and third year of new machine warranty is based on Kverneland’s standard one-year parts and labour warranty. But to qualify for the additional two years’ of warranty cover, customers must register their machine online through http://my.kverneland. com and also have their machine serviced annually by a Kverneland dealer.

Servicing is at the customer’s expense, and needs to take place before the end of the first year’s warranty; and again before the end of the second year’s warranty. Terms and conditions apply, and wear parts are excluded from this offer.

Soest factory upgrades

New dealers

Major reconstruction work has been taking place at the Kverneland Group’s Soest factory to upgrade production and logistics. With seed drill, precision seeding equipment and now power harrow production, Soest has evolved into a key

Accessibility to Kverneland equipment continues to get much easier, with two more dealers joining the expanding network.

the midlands, Parnham Tractors is focused predominantly on grass machinery and the Kverneland Siloking feeding equipment, to compliment its existing tractor and equipment franchises.

The first is Parnham Tractors based at Waterhouses, between Leek and Ashbourne, in Staffordshire. Covering areas of

The second new dealer appointment is Cheshire Farm Machinery, located at Cuddington, near Northwich, Cheshire.

production facility within the group. The result of this reinvestment will include shorter lead-times and improved quality control for all Kverneland Group Soest products, and better factory integration of power harrow and seed drill combinations.

The impressive Kverneland u-drill range continues to grow, and a 4m folding version is to join the range in grain-only and grain/fertiliser versions. Called the 4000F, the folding model extends the versatility of the u-drill range, and retains all the proven features of the larger 6m model including front packer wheels, cultivation elements and seeding coulters. Its narrow transport width of less than 3m is achieved using a pair of 2m wing sections that fold vertically alongside the 3000-litre hopper.

Options for consolidation just got broader with Kverneland’s extensive range of packers and presses. In addition to the proven Packomat system, the range includes single- and double packers up to 4.35m wide, plus single packers in combination with a turn-around crumbler, and front-mounted 3m, 4m, 4.5m and 6m packers. Options include 20mm harrow tines and knives, 700mm and 900mm press rings, plus 38-degree, 45-degree and 50-degree shoulder profiles to suit a wide variety of soil types.

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u-drill boosts output

Expansion of DN Laker’s farming operation from Bregsells Farm near Dorking, Surrey, has seen the family business recently push its mixed farming operation beyond 2,000 acres.

It is an enterprise that comprises two dairy herds totaling 500 cows on units just four miles apart, supported by a 650-acre arable and 350-acre maize crop, to compliment the 1,000 acres of grass produced for silage and hay.

“For us, it’s all about the cows, and what we can do to encourage greater milk yields, fertility and animal health,” says Richard Laker, who runs the operation with his father, Daniel. “And that means an extensive arable rotation to help make the most of grass and maize yields, but also to produce straw for our livestock.”

The arable operation went up a gear for 2018, following the arrival of a Kverneland u-drill 6000.

Bought to replace a 6m tine drill, the new purchase has enabled a more streamlined cultivation regime, saving time and money while boosting crop establishment.

many different types, and the last demo we had was the u-drill at the end of the 2017 season from C&O Tractors at Funtington.

Ground conditions were plenty wet enough, and probably would have better suited the power harrow combination.”

“After primary cultivations, we had been making a second pass with disc harrows to improve the seedbed and deal with weeds and volunteers,” says Richard. “But the u-drill does such a good job that we no longer need to use the disc harrows.”

“But the u-drill performed really well; it didn’t block, and it was by far the easiest to pull of any of the big named drills we had tried,” he says. “And its S-tine covering harrow didn’t leave anything exposed. So we kept the demo model.”

“I can now leave stale seedbeds for longer periods before spraying off and drilling.”

Richard Laker | Owner With predominantly heavy clay soils and growing winter wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape, beans, winter oats and stubble turnips, the Lakers wanted one drill that could do all.

“We have a power harrow drill combination as a backup, but we really wanted a sophisticated replacement for our tine drill that could give us improved germination in a wide variety of conditions,” he says. “We tried

Drill brings agronomy benefits

“I also like the ability to see the ends of the seed metering wheels from the cab – you just know what’s going on,” he says.

“Calibration is easy, and seed placement is excellent - we’re getting much better crop canopies too.”

He adds that the firm now puts in its oilseed rape with the u-drill, which was previously a contractor operation with a cultivator and seeder, and the farm has also planted grass seed with the u-drill.

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the drill’s performance and also how easy it is to pull,” he says. “It’s been money well spent, and has saved us a pass, which means a reduction in establishment costs and less time in the field too.”

From Rookery Farm, North Walsham, FJ Clabon and Partners operates a 2,000-acre farming business that makes the most of an extensive rotation. The farm’s medium sandy loam soils play host to sugar beet, potatoes,

Better se

Based at Home Farm, Osmaston, near Ashbourne, Jonathan Griffin farms 1,600 acres, comprising 1,300 acres of combinable cropping, with the remainder providing grass for his beef and sheep enterprises.

“It’s important for us to get a good tilth from the minimum of passes,” he explains. “And since moving away from a 6m tine-based drilling system to the Kverneland

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vining peas and spring barley, with winter wheat and winter barley used as break crops.

which is then sprayed and deep-loosened using a seven leg subsoiler, ahead of the drill.

After buying a secondhand disc drill to move into reduced cultivations around eight years ago, the farm eventually swapped to a new Kverneland u-drill in 2015 from local dealer TNS, to move its crop establishment processes forward.

After potatoes and sugar beet, the subsoiler sets up ground ahead of the u-drill, leading to a two-pass establishment process.

“I don’t understand why there’s not more of these drills in the area,” explains Bob Clabon, who runs the family farming business with his brother Philip. “Even my agronomist says it creates great crops in a nice firm seedbed – and it leaves such a firm finish, that we don’t need to roll behind the drill.”

“It’s very important to lift and loosen our soils ahead of the drill,” he says. “Ploughing is now a rotational process, and we can fall back on a 6m power-harrow drill combination, should we

need a weather-proof system.”

Bob says the drill’s front packer wheels help the machine to ride on top, allowing its discs to prepare a tilth in front of the coulters.

“The u-drill has bought us time,” he says. “My best day has been 110 acres, but importantly in late autumn, I can sow blocks of land as potatoes are lifted, without having to wait for the whole field to become available.”

With the farm spread over 14 miles, road transport and convenience are high on the Clabon wish-list. And the u-drill does not disappoint.

“The drill also rides very well on-road, and its on-board weigh cells also mean I don’t have to fill the hopper.

The seed metering is so accurate that I can put in enough seed to drill the blocks of land we’re working on.”

“The drill has also helped us to trim back on manganese applications too.”

Bob Clabon | Owner Covering around 1,000 acres/ season, the u-drill has proved its worth and is praised for its seed spacing and germination. After combining, the farm makes two shallow passes with a cultivator to encourage a green bridge,

eedbed quality u-drill, we’ve seen seedbed quality improve dramatically, and that is leading to better germination.”

His revised cultivations strategy now comprises one pass with a short disc harrow equipped with DD packer, ahead of the drill.

“The u-drill frees up time to manage livestock duties, and I can still plant 70-80 acres/day, without having to spend long days in the cab.”

Jonathan Griffin | Owner “The DD packer firms and ridges the soil for improved drying, and sets everything up for the drill,” he says. “And then the u-drill’s discs complete the tilth, leaving a superbly level finish for the coulters and following harrow. I’m really impressed with the finish it leaves, and we now get very few

stones sat on the surface too.”

When choosing his latest seed drill, Jonathan Griffin wanted one that was also kind on headlands.

“A demonstration from Battlefield Machinery in late 2017 led to the drill arriving in early 2018, where we planted 300 acres of spring crops,” he says.

generous output, despite field sizes ranging from two to 55 acres in rolling countryside.

“There’s only two of us, so time, efficiency and establishment costs are key for us,” he says. “The u-drill frees up time to manage livestock duties, and I can still plant 70-80 acres/day, without having to spend long days in the cab.”

His machinery buying decisions are focused on what is right for the business, and the u-drill’s ability to handle a wide variety of seed types is prompting a move towards one-pass seeding.

“I’ve planted stubble turnips direct into stubbles, so I’d like to try the u-drill for one-pass seeding with cereals,” he says.

“We get a lot of rain, and can often be working on wet seedbeds,” he explains. “I drill headlands last, and can put the cultivation discs in deeper to sort out any compaction, and also to create a much better tilth on headlands.”

“This drill rides on top, it doesn’t scuff on headland turns, and it’s very easy to pull. My fuel consumption is just three litres of diesel/acre, and it’s so easy to handle that I’m thinking of downsizing my JD7280R for a lighter JD6250R.” Working at speeds of 14kph, he says the 6m drill also affords a

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Turbo improves seedbed preparation Since switching to a Kverneland Turbo cultivator, Shropshire farming business RC Evans has noticed a considerable improvement in seedbed quality, which the farm expects to translate into higher yields.

the same tractor – a New Holland T7.235 – could pull a 4m Turbo at 6-7in deep, at a speed of 8-9kph.”

“We had been using a 3m Simba Express on stubbles for min-till ahead of a power-harrow drill,” says third generation family farmer Tom Evans, who handles daily duties at the 1,400-acre Curdale Farm alongside his father, uncle and auntie.

“At just one metre wider than our old Simba, the extra width has boosted output,” he says.

“But we found that less soil was being moved, and the levelled surface cleverly concealed a poor sub-surface cultivation.”

An open day event at local dealer Murley Agricultural drew Tom’s attention to the Kverneland Turbo cultivator.

“The Turbo looked a useful machine, so we tried it on demo,” he says. “We found that using

Mr Evans reports that output is up to around 60 acres/day – an increase of around 40%.

“We do like to move our soil to promote aeration, improve drainage and to advance our yields.”

Tom Evans | Owner “It’s now so much easier to remove any wheelings and also to aerate our heavier soils,” he says.

“We’ve also used the turbo to lift headlands after ploughing, and we’ve noticed it leaves an even, level finish – it’s much more than what you can see on top.”

3300-series moves up front An all-new suspension system, revised guarding and greater operating convenience are features of the new frontmounted mower conditioner models, badged the 3300-series.

There are two models for the 2019 season – the 3332FT offers a 3.2m working width, while the wider 3336FT reaches out

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to 3.6m. Both use the proven two-bladed disc and semi-swing steel conditioning tine to cut and condition the crop.

A revised conditioner hood allows front-edge and rear-edge adjustment to improve the effectiveness of steel tines in different crop types and densities, while the swath boards can be

moved from wide spreading to swathing, without the need for removal.

Modern guards feature flexible edge protection, while the pull-type suspension with wider mounting points offers improved stability without compromising on lateral and vertical movement when operating over undulating ground.

Mower Data Models: 3332FT, 3336FT Working width: 3.2m, 3.6m Conditioner: Semi-swing steel tine Discs: 8 and 9 Power requirement: from 80hp

Mowing the seeds of success

we’ve been able to treble our grass seed acreage,” he says.

“Where we would previously be combining grass at 35-40% dry matter, we’re now picking the crop up at 7-8%. Crop flow is so much easier.”

The key he says, has been the use of a tractor-mounted Kverneland 2836m plain disc mower. Bought specifically for the task, the mower’s 3.6m working width matches his Shelbourne 3.6m draper header.

“The way the mower’s discs lay the grass in a rectangular swath is absolutely perfect for us,” he says. “Stalks lay at the bottom and seed heads sit on top. Seed losses are reduced dramatically, because anything that does knock off – and it is a delicate crop - now sits in the swath and not on the floor. We’ve seen higher yields too, from reduced losses.”

Growing grass for herbage seed is a task not to be taken lightly. Notoriously challenging to combine, Dorset grower Nigel Friend has worked his way through many different harvesting scenarios over the last 35 years, and has ditched a direct cut approach in favour of mowing.

“We had a lot of hassle direct cutting in 2015, and I dragged an old mower out of the shed and cut a strip of grass to try it,” he says. “I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to combine

– instead of going three feet forward and two feet back, we could actually keep going.”

Trading as the R Shepard Partnership, the improvements made have encouraged the farm to increase its grass seed acreage year-on-year. Nigel says 125 acres of herbage seed are now grown at the 540-acre Lower Farm, Gussage St Michael, with a further 125 acres of grass seed contract harvested elsewhere.

“With a little refinement, and some adjustments to timing,

He says the improved drying and harvesting process has delivered many advantages.

“We’re saving around £8,000/ year on drying costs, and the drier crop means we can harvest 45 acres/day instead of just 15 acres,” he says. “The combine doesn’t have such a hard time because the grass is drier, and the combine’s fuel consumption has dropped by around 75%.”

forage product for his livestock.

“We’ve also noticed that the grass swaths do attract more wildlife to the farm,” he adds.

“Over the years, we’ve made our fields smaller and more manageable so we’re less likely to be caught out by the weather, and we now have 29 miles of hedgerows around the farm.”

“By mowing ahead of combining, we’re catching more crop - typically, 15% more yield ” Nigel Friend | Owner Growing new leys on a two-year rotation still creates tough stalks when mowing starts at the end of June.

“A clean cut is essential to improve swath presentation, so we fit a new set of original Kverneland blades every day before mowing,” he says. “We do shave the ground leaving a 25-30mm stubble. And we’re doing well to hit 10kph with our JD6125R, but the results are worth it.”

With beef and sheep enterprises at Lower Farm, the resulting grass swath left by the combine can be baled and wrapped immediately, to deliver a quality

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Self-propelled delivers top-notch feeding regime Looking to improve feeding efficiency, Dickie Bowdler switched to a Kverneland Siloking System 500+ selfpropelled feeder for his 940-cow dairy herd.

“With our previous trailed feeder, we were clocking up a lot of hours on both our feeder tractor and telehandler, and I wanted to improve efficiency of the ration mixing process,” he explains.

“The options were add a second telehandler, or go self-propelled.”

Based at Park Hall Farm, Ellesmere, Shropshire, the herd has gradually increased in size over the last four years, putting pressure on the feeding regime.

Yard space and existing buildings dictated overall machine size, so Mr Bowdler stuck with a 22 cubic metre feeder.

Compared to a tractor and trailed feeder, the self-propelled’s four-wheel steer offers greater manoeuvrability, and a doubleoutlet rear cross conveyor affords simultaneous unloading on both sides to suit narrow feed passageways.

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But what he wasn’t expecting, was a considerable number of small efficiency gains that have added up to useful improvements to herd management. These include the opportunity to put more numbers on the herd, a reduction in fuel consumption, shorter mixing and feeding times, greater labour availability, and improved ration quality.

Supplied by Battlefield Machinery, the arrival of the self-propelled feeder has also led to the arrival of an additional 140 cows at Park Hall Farm.

“The way the milling head fills the tub, we’re getting an extra 1,600kg of payload in each load compared to top-filling our trailed feeder,” he says. “And that extra payload means we’ve been able to put more cows into the herd without needing to make an extra mix. So the feeder’s capacity is better utilised.”

Preparing 40 tonnes of feed per day in five mixes now happens much more quickly, freeing up labour units for the milking team.

“The bottleneck was always the telehandler – so this one man, one machine feed system is a big improvement in many ways.”

He says mixing can also continue while driving around the yard,

“We’ve saved an hour a day on feeding, and we’re burning much less fuel too ” Dickie Bowdler | Owner rather than waiting for the process to complete, and the twin vertical auger mixing system creates a much better ration with greater consistency delivered throughout the feed mix.

“Cows no longer sort through the feed, so they have the benefit of the same high-quality grub throughout the day,” he says. “It’s because the milling head weighs the ration ingredients, where a telehandler bucket would just drop in its contents. Nobody bothers to run back to a feed pile with excess product in the bucket.”

“And because of this, each mix is accurate to within 1% - every mix is almost identical.”

With 1,000-hour service intervals and auto greasing, the feeder is expected to clock-up 1,200-1,300 hours/year – much less than the farm’s previous feeder tractor and telehandler.

“Reliability and minimum downtime are essential for a machine that needs to operate every day of the year,” he says.

“And if it wasn’t for the backup and support I get from Battlefield Machinery, I probably would have chosen a second telehandler.”

Improved animal comfort with 864 shredder bedder Based near Hadnall, Shrewsbury, Sansaw Estate operates a New Zealand-based herd management system for its 1,500-cow dairy herd.

Introduced in 2012, it enables the 1,860-acre farm to make the most of its best resource – grass.

With grazed grass seen by the business as the most profitable way to produce milk, it enables the farm to block calve in spring, turning out the entire herd onto spring grass, and contributing to lower feed costs.

As the herd is prepared for calving, the focus of attention turns to winter housing of youngstock and dry cows, which involves making the latter

as comfortable and clean as possible on straw, as head tractor driver Martin Perry explains.

“At our peak, we’ll be shredding 20 Quadrant-sized bales every day throughout the livestock buildings,” he says. “While this provides us with a great source of manure to put back on the fields, it has been a logistical challenge to make the most of our straw.”

Until last year, the farm relied on a telehandler-mounted bale shredding attachment, but efficiency has since increased and straw consumption reduced with the arrival of an 864 Pro trailed shredder bedder.

“With the 864, we can bed the cattle in less time, and do it with more precision” Martin Perry | Head Tractor Driver “We can now blow straw over a distance of around 24m, rather than shredding straw barely wider than the width of the attachment.”

Martin Perry and farm manager Bruce Braithwaite both reckon that the farm is now getting better utilisation from its straw, reinforced after having a number of bales left-over from the 2018 calving period.

“We were expecting to have to buy in more straw,” says Bruce.

“But the 864 just does a far better of job of breaking, bruising and processing straw, so it absorbs more moisture and lasts longer in the cow sheds.”

With multiple sheds used to house livestock, and of various sizes, the 864 Pro is delivering efficiency for the Sansaw dairy team.

“We can load two bales at a time to improve throughput, and ultimately, I have better control of the spread and how the straw is distributed,” says Martin Perry.

“It is a very easy machine to use, and there’s no risk of accidentally selecting the wrong function on the control box.”

Learn more with Kverneland Know-How A recent Kverneland KnowHow event held on-farm, in conjunction with Battlefield Machinery and Wynnstay Agriculture, highlighted key areas where livestock farmers could make the most of forage.

The event drew attention to managing forage losses, from the field through to the feed fence, and with it, feed specialists highlighted the benefits of greater feeding accuracy and data recording.

Mixing quality was put under the spotlight, with grading boxes used to highlight ration consistency delivered to the feed troughs.

Kverneland Know-How events take place throughout the year, and are designed to help you seek the best performance and efficiency from your business, with the help and knowledge of industry specialists.

Contact your local dealer to find out more about these informative, specialist events.

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Improving the customer experience

Following the success of a pilot training scheme tailored to the role of dealer parts managers, Kverneland is extending its scheme to promote further knowledge transfer with the aim of improving after sales service and support.

“Interaction between Kverneland customers and parts departments is vital to maintain operational efficiency on-farm,”

explains Richard Bennett, Kverneland parts marketing manager.

“As our product ranges expand, and become more complex, we have identified a growing need to help our dealer parts departments to develop a planned and structured approach so they can better identify a customer’s requirements for original parts.”

Such an approach, says Mr Bennett, will improve the customer service experience, along with the timely supply of original parts.

“Our training scheme also includes the opportunity for dealer parts staff to visit our extensive UK parts warehouse, and to go behind the scenes at supply level to also meet our parts technical team,” he says. “This gives a better understanding of what is involved in keeping customers satisfied, and also helps to strengthen relationships.”

“Kverneland’s goal is to improve the customer service experience, and this higher level of satisfaction will also help dealer parts staff to reach a greater number of potential customers.”

of winter and spring jackets including padded, wind-breaker and softshell items, plus a range of spring clothing that comprises sweatshirts and polo shirts.

Further details will be available from your Kverneland dealer.

Softshell Jacket

New range of Kverneland clothing Keep your eyes peeled for an all-new range of Kverneland clothing due to arrive in Spring 2019. Called the Smart collection, the range features a host

Padded Jacket

Kids - win a pair of Kverneland overalls Simply colour in the Kv farmyard, take a photo and email it to info-uksales@kvernelandgroup.com The best one gets a pair of Kv overalls - don’t forget to include your name, address, age and your size.

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Rotational ploughing success Rotational ploughing remains an integral part of the cultivation process for the Norfolkbased Raynham Farming Company. So much so, that the farm operates a nine-furrow RN and a six-furrow LD.

“The 12-furrow plough could really only be handled by the MT865, which limited our options. Now, we can use any of our three frontline tractors on either of the two ploughs,” he adds. “While we prefer to plough on-land with tracks, if it does get too greasy, the Valtra can take over.”

Given the workload, Mr Blyth has replaced the original knockon points with Kverneland’s tungsten-tipped metal to reduce downtime.

“It’s a considerable investment, but we don’t have to stop so often to attend to wearing metal.”

He adds that most of the farm’s 600-acre sugar beet land is ploughed over, post-harvest.

“We’ll plough and drill with a 4m power-harrow combination immediately behind the harvester, leaving no clear ground unworked,” he says. “But if it’s dry, we can get away with sub-soiling and drilling.”

Based at Hall Farm, East Raynham, farm manager Duncan Blyth prefers a full inversion process after sugar beet, and keeps a min-till strategy in use directly behind the combine.

“Harvest conditions often let us cover a lot of ground very quickly with min-till, but as the season gets later, we lose the opportunity to develop a stale seedbed,” says Duncan Blyth. “So we’ll make full use of our ploughs to guarantee clean seedbeds and effective blackgrass control too.”

“Ploughing is still an integral part of our system ”

Primary cultivations power at the 5,000-acre Raynham Farming Company comes from Challenger MT865C and MT765C tractors, and a wheeled Valtra S353. Its ploughs include a six-furrow fully-mounted LD, and a nine-furrow semimounted RN100.

He adds that the RN’s simplicity and generous offset makes it easy to swap between tractors, and importantly, when ploughing onland, there’s enough adjustment to keep tracks away from the furrow’s edge – even with the wider MT865.

The RN100 arrived in the summer of 2018 to enhance operational flexibility. Bought from local dealer TNS, the nine-furrow RN100 replaced a 12-furrow RW.

“The quality of our ploughing is first class, and working to a depth of around 11in after sugar beet, we can put structure back into our soils,” he says.

“A further 500 acres of stubbleto-stubble contract work for a neighbour also falls beneath the plough, and 650 acres of maize ground is prepared using a mixture of plough and min-till practices depending on spring weather.”

Both ploughs are equipped with No28 bodies, with furrows set at 16in widths, and given that settings and results are as good as identical, both can comfortably work together in the same field.

“We often use the RN to plough the middles, and the smaller LD for headland work,” he says. “The RN can easily turn over 60 acres/day.”

Duncan Blyth | Farm Manager

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Big tech on small spreaders

For Elgan Evans at Llwyn Goronwy, Carmel, near Llanrwst, the opportunity to improve spreading accuracy arose from the need for a replacement spreader.

“We were operating at a fixed speed, at 12m and with an old, two-bag capacity spreader,” he recalls. “While the small payload and light weight suited a lot of our very steep slopes around Snowdonia, we were missing out on productivity and efficiency with our outlying land.”

The arrival of a CL GEOSPREAD with four-bag capacity hopper, plus Tellus GO terminal and Isomatch Global GPS receiver has transformed accuracy and efficiency at B&M Evans and Sons, the 400-acre family-run dairy farming unit he operates with his brother, Gareth.

“With the help of local dealer Mona Tractors, we’ve taken our first step into precision farming,” he says. “While we were a little apprehensive, we’re now using 5-10% less fertiliser from better accuracy and reduced overlaps, and that will soon pay for the spreader.”

The farm’s 285-cow spring calving herd, plus followers, are run on a New Zealand-style grazing system, using fields divided into five-acre grazing paddocks.

“Grass quality is essential, so we’re out once a week, every week throughout summer with a couple of bags, top dressing little and often,” he says.

“Pastures show an even colour and growth, and the cows love that level of consistency” Elgan Evans | Owner “There’s much less pressure after silage, too. I know I can now get over the fields much more quickly, and do a far better job.

And on steeper ground, I can now choose the safest route across a field because I know the spreader’s section control will take care of any overlaps or misses.”

Efficient farming technology was sought

by Rhuddlan-based Huw Jones, who bought a CL GEOSPREAD to boost fertiliser spreading accuracy at Pengwern Farm.

has made grassland spreading a revelation.

“We’ve added 550 acres of arable work through a contract farming agreement, bringing diversity to our 500-cow, 560-acre farm,” explains Huw Jones. “And with twice as much field work to accommodate, we needed to improve our fertiliser spreading, but without buying into auto steering.”

Where the farm needed two days to cover 450 acres of combinable crops, the job can now be completed in one day.

With a desire to improve accuracy and efficiency, Mr Jones turned to local dealer Mona Tractors, to take a look at weigh cell technology and section control on the Exacta range.

“We couldn’t justify a TL GEOSPREAD, but the smaller CL version now offers the same advantages in a smaller, more affordable package,” he says. “And to be honest, it’s the best bit of kit I’ve ever bought.”

Where the farm previously used light bar guidance and a fixed forward speed, the CL GEOSPREAD

“It doesn’t matter where you drive, the auto section control and auto start/stop ensures you don’t overlap, and you don’t miss anything,” he says. “And working in 24m tramlines for our arable contract work, forward speeds are now variable, which is a huge efficiency gain.”

“We’re saving fertiliser as well as time, which will pay for the spreader within two years” Huw Jones | Owner “But just as importantly fertiliser is going on evenly, accurately, and we’re not wasting or overlapping.”he says.

Spreader control is handled using a Tellus GO terminal, which also records spreading progress.

“We have full traceability of spreading and this is technology that really works. I should have bought one years ago.”

His only regret is not buying the dual-screen Tellus PRO terminal, to avoid having to switch between the application map and spreader settings.

“You don’t miss something you’ve never had, though I know I would miss the accuracy and cost-savings if we couldn’t use GEOSPREAD.”

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