Latest News - June 07
13.06.07 - SIMBA APPLIES THE PRESSURE
Simba Horsch is introducing a pressurised hopper for its 3m, 4m and 6m Sprinter and Pronto DC drill ranges. This will enable users to achieve more accurate combined drilling when using higher seed/fertiliser rates.
The company offers a hopper for both types of drill that can be split between 40% seed and 60% fertiliser so users can ‘combined drill’, although both parts of the hopper can be filled with seed to enable conventional drilling.
‘Combined drilling’ is becoming more widely used in Scotland, especially among farmers switching to reduced tillage, who can apply seedbed fertiliser to compensate for the fact that they are no longer mineralising as much nitrogen from the soil as they did when they ploughed, or in trashy seedbeds where there is more competition for the available nitrogen.
“Being able to place fertiliser with the seed has been a real benefit this spring, as the dry weather has hindered germination and early crop development. The fertiliser also helps reduce soil ph and ensures that soil manganese reserves are more available to the plant”, says Jimmie Carver, Simba’s Territory Manager.
When fitted to the Sprinter drill the fertiliser is placed below and separated from the seed by the Duett coulter, while on the Pronto DC it is placed between and slightly deeper than the seed rows:
“This system will enable users to drill 250kgs of seed/ha and 400kgs/ha of fertiliser when working at 12kph, so they can achieve top quality crops and get drilled up in timely fashion as well”.
One benefit purchasers of the system will also notice is some simplification of the drills’ seed delivery system, as it no longer uses a venturi system that conventional drills use to transfer seed from the hopper to the seed head. The new system helps make optimum use of the drill’s fan capacity, and it is this that enables it to handle larger volumes of material.
