Kverneland Headland News: Issue 48 - Arable Focus

ISSUE 48 | ARABLE FOCUS

WELCOME TO ISSUE 48

Output, accuracy and efficiency have always been at the forefront of progressive farming for as long as I can remember. And this Arable edition highlights a number of our new products that meet those requirements.

New kit however, is worthless if the operator can’t understand it or make suitable adjustments to deal with constantly changing conditions. And our FarmCentre electronic data platform aims to simplify a host of day-to-day tasks to enable owners and operators to get the most out of their machinery fleet, including data transfer and ease of connectivity.

Coming from an engineering background it’s always good to see a new focus on machinery that we thought had reached the peak of development. Take the new Rotago power harrow as an example. Kverneland engineers have taken a clean sheet approach, adding ISOBUS technology for on-the-move adjustment of both the clod board and working depth, making it easier to adjust without leaving the cab. Its fuel saving potential is enormous.

Come and catch up with us at the Royal Highland and Royal Welsh shows, where we’ve swapped coffee for milk shakes, to support milk producers using our products.

Dan Crowe Managing Director

SHOW DATES

Royal Highland 20–23 June

Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston

Royal Welsh 22–25 July

Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells

Tillage Live 18 September

Headley Hall, Tadcaster

Scottish Ploughing Championships 25–26 October

Newmore Farm, Invergordon

AgriScot 13 November

Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston

Satio - the new solo drill

Satio is a new model of pneumatic drill. Tractor-mounted, this lightweight, close-coupled solo unit has been developed for smaller tractors and is available in 3m and 4m rigid models, and 5m and 6m widths with hydraulic folding.

Hopper capacities can be 750 and 1,000 litres for rigid models, which use mechanically driven seed metering, while hydraulic folding models get a 1,750-litre hopper and ELDOS electric seed metering.

CX-II coulters offer a preset 12.5cm or 25cm row spacing, but flexible fixing allows on-farm row-width adjustment for those seeking a different spacing.

LLG CELEBRATES 75 YEARS OF PRODUCTION

Les Landes-Genusson (LLG), the French-based centre of excellence for Kverneland cultivation equipment, is celebrating 75 years of manufacturing.

Based in mid-west France, LLG evolved from SICAM, which started a co-operation with the German RAU family in 1971 to eventually

become RAU Agrotechnic. In 2001, the RAU Group was bought by Kverneland and its manufacturing now benefits from the special heat-treatment processes used across the Kverneland Group.

Currently producing stubble and seedbed cultivators, compact disc harrows, subsoilers and strip-till equipment, LLG will soon be manufacturing Kverneland mechanical weeding equipment following the acquisition of BC Technique last year, as the two factories merge.

ROTAGO F BRINGS ISOBUS TO POWER HARROWS

Rotago F power harrows are available in hydraulically adjusted basic spec and high-tech ISOBUS versions, and both are available with on-the-move adjustments of the levelling bar and working depth.

This advanced specification is all about efficiency. With each centimetre of working depth moving around 140 tonnes of soil per hectare, those working in constantly changing soil conditions can benefit considerably from on-the-move implement adjustments.

And this is where fuel savings of up to 20% are available, by operating only at the minimum depth needed to create a seedbed.

When used in combination with the f-drill front hopper and folding toolbar, ISOBUS automation can make the operator’s task much easier.

Rotago is a clean-sheet design. The F suffix denotes folding models available in 4m,

4.5m, 5m and 6m working widths. The range features a pushed – rather than pulled - gear case, with depth adjustment achieved by raising and lowering the gear case in its frame, through a parallel linkage. And sensors monitor and protect against over-loading or mis-use.

A modular f-drill CB F toolbar can be used with Rotago F models, and uses CX-II coulters offering 12.5cm and 25cm row widths.

To manage high axle loads on public roads, the Rotago F and f-drill CB F toolbar combination can be equipped with a single transport wheel with a suspension function – this removes around 1.5 tonnes of weight from the tractor, lowering the tractor’s rear axle load.

Kverneland has renewed its partnership with the Scottish Ploughing Championships as main sponsor of the prestigious event taking place this year at Newmore Farm, Invergordon, on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th October. For more details, please visit www.scotplough.co.uk

GEORGE BROWNS ADDS KVERNELAND AT TWO MORE DEPOTS

Existing dealer George Browns has expanded the area in which it can provide Kverneland implements. Having already offered the Kverneland portfolio from its existing Chesham, Buckinghamshire depot, the firm is now able to provide sales, service and support for Kverneland implements from its depots in Daventry, Northants, and Witney, Oxfordshire.

12M QUALIDISC

The Qualidisc compact disc harrow range now extends to a 12.25m working width, following the arrival of the trailed Qualidisc T.

Suiting controlled traffic farming regimes, the Qualidisc T boasts four independently mounted frame sections that follow ground contours, with each carrying two rows of 600mm diameter notched discs, as found on smaller Qualidisc Pro models.

Ground pressure is maintained across pairs of wing sections, maintaining a level, worked soil layer and surface. Even at high forward speeds of up to 20km/hr.

Working depth is from two to 15cm, and a range of rear packer options include Actipack, Actipress and Actipress Twin rear rollers.

FARMCENTRE SIMPLIFIES DATA TRANSFER

Looking to improve connectivity and data transfer between farm office and his Kverneland Exacta TL GEOSPREAD fertiliser spreader, Mat Grant of Lincs-based GB Grant has adopted the IsoMatch FarmCentre electronic platform.

FarmCentre can provide a complete overview of a machinery fleet, along with task data relating to specific jobs. For Mat Grant, pictured, it will eliminate the need for manual data transfer via USB stick, at the 1,050-acre Highfield Farm near Cadwell in Lincolnshire.

“FarmCentre will let me upload tasks onto ‘the cloud’ for the operator to download remotely, into the IsoMatch Tellus PRO terminal in the tractor cab,” he explains. “And data transfer back to the farm office follows the same process, as tasks are completed.”

He sees the process as one that delivers greater efficiency.

“If I make last minute changes to prescription maps for fertilisers for example, to suit changes in weather or agronomic recommendations, there’s no need for the tractor and spreader to return to the yard to get the latest maps, or for me to take maps to the operator with a replacement USB stick,” he says. “FarmCentre is an ideal solution that can save time and allow for fine-tuning with inputs.”

Mat Grant has recently been announced as the lucky winner of a limited-edition version of the dual screen Tellus PRO terminal

“It’s brilliant to have, and is a huge cost-saving.”

worth over £8,000, giving him a second IsoMatch Tellus PRO terminal.

“I’m delighted to have won the black terminal,” he says. “I already have a Tellus PRO to run

my spreader, but now I can put the limited-edition terminal in my other tractor, so it doesn’t matter which tractors are used for fertiliser spreading or drilling. It’s brilliant to have, and is a huge cost-saving.”

QUALIDISC PROVIDES SHALLOW SOLUTION

When his contractor struggled to cover maize seed while planting into flinty soils, Wiltshire grower Geoff Homer reached for a Qualidisc cultivator to provide adequate soil cover.

That was in Spring 2023, and he says the adjustability of the 5m trailed cultivator enabled it to work at an ultra-shallow depth, guaranteeing its place in the machinery fleet.

“...this

is where the Qualidisc has proved to be a great asset for the farm”

“With hindsight, we should have rolled the flint land ahead of drilling to prevent stones from bull-dozing,” says Geoff, pictured. “We tried to cover the seed by rolling, but it didn’t work – so we

hitched onto a demo Qualidisc that we’d got from Chandlers and set the machine as shallow as possible to put soil back on the exposed seeds. It proved a great test, and it worked a treat.”

Based at Chisbury Lane Farm near Marlborough, Wiltshire, Homer Farms has grown from 250 acres and 180 cows to 3,000 acres and 900 cows on three dairies.

Alongside 145 acres of maize, it grows 1,200 acres of cereals comprising winter wheat, winter and spring barley, oilseed rape and hemp, with the remaining acreage providing grass for grazing and silage crops.

“We’ve swapped kit to suit the way our arable workload has grown in the last two years,” adds Geoff. “We’ve embarked on min-till and no-till processes too, while adding cover crops and companion crops to our rotation to enhance soil biology.”

He says that while no-till is the primary goal, the Qualidisc is used to address shallow

compaction in Spring, when sheep have grazed the cover crops, and also for stale seedbed creation following oilseed rape.

“It is a great way to manage a slug burden without moving too much soil, and it’s a highly effective tool for removing combine compaction,” says Geoff.

“With a Fendt 724 up front, we can hit 12kph at our maximum working depth of 5cm. When working shallower, our fuel use drops considerably.”

He says seedbeds remain level, and the length of the trailed Qualidisc assists soil flow between the two rows of discs, ahead of consolidation with the Actipack rear roller.

“I do like to fine-tune all my kit to get the best results possible,” he adds. “And that means making adjustments on a field-by-field basis as conditions change, and this is where the Qualidisc has proved to be a great asset for the farm.”

TERRAKO: A NEW ONLINE PARTS ORDERING SYSTEM

Kverneland is to roll-out an e-commerce market place later this year that will enable customers to find and order original spare parts online.

It is called Terrako, and will be the online market place for the entire Kubota Corporation in Europe, which will distribute parts for all its brands using the new

platform. In addition, discussions are still ongoing with a number of interested third party suppliers, to widen the availability of complementary products.

XHD SLASHES PLOUGHING

COSTS

The introduction of XHD tungsten-tipped original Kverneland plough parts is saving one north Yorkshire grower around £13,500/year on plough metal.

That’s because Albanwise Farming relies heavily on its nine-furrow RN100 plough, as it turns over some 2,500-acres each year as part of its establishment process.

“The plough is a very important part of our system,” explains Yorkshire farms manager Will Jones, pictured, who looks after Albanwise Farming’s 11,000-acre operation based at Low Mowthorpe. “We’re 170m above sea level which means a late wheat harvest, and this is followed with 1,500 acres of

This all-new platform is currently being used by Kverneland dealers for parts ordering from any of the Kverneland Group’s parts distribution warehouses. Later this year, customers will be able to create their own account to access Terrako and purchase original Kverneland parts online,

winter barley, with malting quality as the goal. Ploughing gives us seedbed quality along with effective weed management on our chalky flint soils.”

Historically, the farm had been spending around £17,500/year on plough metal, but three years ago Albanwise Farming switched to non-genuine tungsten parts as it sought to lower its operating costs.

“Initially, I saw Kverneland’s XHD as a clever sales pitch, so I went to the aftermarket sector to save

through this new online e-commerce platform to access dealer stock or Kverneland stock.

Dealers and customers will have access to parts manuals and the transactions will be between dealers and end users, simplifying and speeding up the process of ordering original parts.

Parts will be delivered direct to their preferred local Kverneland dealer, ready for collection.

money on tungsten,” he says. “Farmstar also provided XHD points that we fitted to one left and one right-hand body, as a comparison.”

Pulled by a Case Magnum 380 Rowtrac covering up to 75 acres/ day, output is impressive. But after three days ploughing, Mr Jones says aftermarket tungsten parts had worn out, and the Kverneland XHD parts had barely taken the paint off.

“It was a light-bulb moment, though the initial investment was considerable,” he says. “Instead of

“It was a lightbulb moment...”

spending little and often, it’s now a bigger chunk up front each year, but the savings are colossal.”

“Downtime was enormous, but now we only have to swap metal once during the season, and that’s impressive considering how often we had to stop and re-metal,” says Will. “XHD means we’re now only spending £3,000-4,000/year on plough metal, instead of £17,500/year while also suffering a huge amount of downtime.”

HIGH-SPEC IXTER MEETS CONTRACTOR’S NEEDS

Spraying has become an essential part of contractor Jack Wilson’s services, alongside baling, umbilical slurry applications and stone crushing. Having recently upgraded from a rear mounted model, Jack opted for a 24m iXter B18 in combination with an iXtra front tank to meet customer demand around south west Scotland.

TLX

“I needed more output for better timeliness, and the most flexible solution for my business was the iXter combination,” says Jack, pictured. “It offers good weight distribution, better stability than a trailed model on the steeper slopes, and as I already have tractors, it is far better value than a self-propelled.”

With the ability to carry 1,200 litres up front and 1,800-litres at the rear of his John Deere 6R155 tractor and work at 12m, 18m and 24m, he says the outfit is easy to hitch and remove, thanks to the use of an A-frame

“I can often put the sprayer on and off several times a week,” he says. “I face a huge variety of crops types, so it’s important that the sprayer is easy to use and very easy to clean.”

Supplied by RC Dalgliesh, Jack opted for a high specification package that includes iXclean Pro, iXspray control and iXflow-E with Boom Guide.

“As an Isobus sprayer, it is plug and play through my tractor’s extended terminal, and with the IsoMatch Grip joystick, I have full control of functionality, alongside auto section control and auto start/stop.”

Simplifying multi-tank management, the sprayer is also equipped with Twin Fill capability.

“I really like Twin Fill,” he says. “It ensures that the correct volumes of liquid in the correct concentrations for each tank, are correctly mixed, split and transferred. As a contractor, that’s very important for me, and also my customers.”

MAINTAINS ACCURACY AT HIGH RATES

Growing 220 acres of potatoes for crisping, AW & MA Webster has been focussed on achieving the most accurate and consistent fertiliser application possible, to produce a consistent potato crop with little variation.

This year, the farm replaced its tried and trusted 20-year old Vicon twin disc weigh-cell spreader with the very latest high-flow Exacta TLX GEOSPREAD model supplied from Clarke & Pulman, and raised the bar further.

“We’ve gone full section control with auto start/stop while gaining a huge amount of flow that can easily cope with our high application rates on potatoes,” explains Andrew Webster, pictured, of Hollin House

“The TLX is a future-proofed purchase, which has already led us onto variable rate spreading with combinable crops”

Green Farm, Aughton near Ormskirk, Lancashire.

“There’s around 60% more flow from the TLX with no reduction in accuracy,” he says. “And where I was previously limited to 11kph, my forward speed is around 16kph, which means much more output and more capacity with lighter rates.”

Along with wife Margaret and sons Matt and Chris, the Websters farm around 600 acres, and in addition to potatoes, the rotation includes winter and spring wheat, winter and spring oats, fodder beet and grass.

Application rates can be as high as 1,200kg/ha, with Mr Webster taking a specific approach to dosing potato seedbeds.

“We’re close to the coast so onshore winds can be challenging,” he says. “So I split the rate and use two spread

widths to ensure I get as even a level of coverage as possible.”

“The first pass can be up to 600kg at 24m, then the second pass is made at the 12m-mark, to fill in better. It works really well at headlands, leaving a very even dose.”

The spreader is used with an IsoMatch Tellus Go+ terminal, allowing it to be used on several

of the farm’s Massey tractors without buying additional unlock codes for tractor terminals.

“The TLX is a future-proofed purchase, which has already led us onto variable rate spreading with combinable crops,” he says.

“It’s a very accurate spreader, and other than it being a little awkward to clean thoroughly, I like it a lot.”

REDUCING YIELD VARIATION

It wasn’t until Ed Williams’ contractor saw areas of yield drop-off during combining, that his attention shifted towards replacing the farm’s fertiliser spreader.

“We had always bought highquality, branded fertiliser but our ageing machine clearly wasn’t doing as good a job as we thought on 24m tramlines,” explains Ed Williams, pictured, of Rhadyr Farm, Usk, South Wales. “While yield variation wasn’t visible, the combine’s yield monitor recorded it all, and we were missing out.”

The 750-acre family farm run by Ed and his brothers Andrew and Owain grows around 200 acres of cereals, 100 acres of maize and 450 acres of grass. With the

exception of milling wheat, all produce is consumed by the farm’s beef and sheep enterprises, and its 200-head dairy herd and followers.

“Several farmers I know, including my contractor Stan Evans, do use and had recommended, Kverneland’s GEOSPREAD spreader, so I had to take a closer look,” he adds. “This was going to be my first ISOBUS machine, so I needed to be confident that my tractors had compatibility.”

He says local dealer Hopkins Machinery brought an ISOBUS

TS-DRILL LEADS TO GREATER EFFICIENCY

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) prompted Somerset farmer David Pineo, pictured, to invest in a 6m ts-drill to establish cover crops after maize.

“We’d never done our own drilling before, and I’ve been surprised by how easy it has been to set up and use the Kverneland ts-drill,” explains David Pineo of JD & JM Pineo and Partners, Laurel Farm, Edingworth near Weston-SuperMare. “And from drilling cover crops after maize, I’ve now progressed to sowing our own wheat and barley, plus a peas and barley mix for whole crop.”

“And I really like what the drill has done so far,” he says. “When you input the seed type into the Focus 3 control box, it tells you what seed rollers to use – it’s

demo plug to show how the spreader would operate through his John Deere 6155R’s terminal, and the deal was done. Mr Williams opted for an Exacta TL GEOSPREAD with three hopper extensions, twin steps and auto start/stop with section control.

“Fertiliser spreading is now so much easier and much more accurate, with no overlaps,” he says. “And where we’ve had a few wet areas this spring, I’ve also spread across tramlines to reach into those wet areas, letting the

technology do the work for me.”

He says spreading on grass leys without tramlines is also more accurate too.

“There’s never any fertiliser left over in the hopper, it all goes on exactly where it should,” says Ed. “And with the shaker box and spreading charts, I’ve much more confidence in spreading any type of fertiliser. I’m looking forward to seeing yield data at harvest, to find out how much we’ve improved our spreading accuracy.”

very straightforward and very accurate.”

Supplied by Read Agri Services, the 48-row ts-drill arrived on standard coulters at 12.5cm row spacing. Mr Pineo also opted for the low disturbance, narrow tine option, which he says will be much easier to pull on his heavy clay land using the farm’s Deutz-Fahr 6.185 tractor.

“Seed placement and establishment is really good, but with the narrow tines, it should become even easier to direct drill straight behind the forager, as soon as the maize comes off,” he says. “This

means lower cost establishment, and with less fuel too, which will add to my efficiency.”

Better efficiency has also been put into operation at Laurel Farm with the switch from two 3m NG-S power harrows to one 5m folding NG-H F30 model.

“Historically, we had been using two 3m models for ease of transport around our narrow lanes, but as tractors have increased in power, we ran the power harrows using economy pto settings,” he says.

“... it’s very straightforward and very accurate”

Having finally made the decision to go wider, he says efficiency has been given a boost.

“Swapping to one 5m folding model now means the same work can be done using one tractor and one operator,” he says. “And with GPS, there’s very little overlap, which again, all adds to my overall efficiency.”

f-drill reduces passes

Spreading weight and managing compaction is an important aspect of seedbed production for A & PR Sykes based at Greenside Farm, Rawcliffe, Humberside.

Across its sand and silty loam soils, the 250-acre family-run farm produces around 20 different vegetable crops for local and wholesale markets, alongside winter wheat, winter barley and sugar beet.

“We had been using a 4m pneumatic folding drill for combinable crops, with land ploughed and power harrowed to get the seedbed quality we need,” explains Patrick Sykes, pictured, who farms with parents Allan and Beryl.

“A five-furrow LD85 is used to plough quite deep to restore soil structure after sugar beet, then we’ll work down the land ready for drilling,” he adds.

Patrick says that most of the farm gets power harrowed twice each season ahead of drilling, so when the time came to replace the farm’s 20-year-old drill, a power

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harrow drill combination was at the top of his wish-list.

“We reasoned that a combination would enable us to drill while making our second pass with a power harrow, instead of having to come back and drill separately,” he says. “It would save a pass, which meant burning less fuel, and we could get the job done in fewer hours, with less labour.”

With modest tractor power to consider, the Sykes’ looked at the f-drill combination, which operates with a front-mounted seed tank and a harrow-mounted toolbar. But rather than opt for a 4m folding version, Mr Sykes opted for a 3.5m fixed width to accommodate 21m tramlines, based around an NG-H power harrow using a 28 row toolbar with CX-II disc coulters and press wheels.

“A 4m folding machine would have been too heavy on the back of our John Deere 6830, so we

chose a 3.5m width that enables us to get around local roads without compromising on output,” he says. “We already use a 3.5m power harrow, so having another one to match was always going to be beneficial.”

“Up front, we opted for the 1,600-litre f-drill Compact hopper, as we don’t have a telehandler. The low loading height of the hopper meant we could fill using a tractor loader, or with our masted forklift truck.”

Patrick says that with seed in the hopper, the outfit balances extremely well, and given the farm’s small field sizes, output is up to 25 acres/day.

“The power harrow and its toolbar is quite heavy on its own, so it made sense to split the weight between the front and rear of the tractor,” he says. “We had to get a front linkage fitted to the 6830, and have added wheel track eradicators.”

“...we could get the job done in fewer hours, with less labour.”

“And without a hopper on the back, I have a really good view across the toolbar,” he says.

Patrick Sykes says that seed placement has been impressive, with he and Allan noting the even germination across all its cereal crops.

“We’ve gone from Suffolk coulters that lacked control, to disc coulters and press wheels with easy pressure adjustment,” he says. “There are no odd rows appearing here and there, it all came up in one go, removing any variation from growth stages.”

“And if I want to vary the seed rate for those poorer areas in a field, I can move +/- 10% on the Tellus GO+ control box,” he says. “It’s quite easy to operate.”

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