Technology: 11% more silage maize in trials of new seed drill

Increasing maize yield as much as 11% by planting in double rows is the latest breakthrough in seed drilling by Pöttinger.

In 2015, the University for Soil Sciences in Vienna tested the Pöttinger Aerosem PCS Duplex seeder, and confirmed its efficiency:The increase in yield recorded with silage maize was 11%.

In 2016, large scale tests were performed in Hungary, Austria, Germany, and France. The results proved a significant increase in yield at all locations.

Almost two hectares per hour of seeding with four double rows (working width 3m) was achieved.

The row spacing between each set of double rows is 75cm, so they are easy to harvest using a standard maize header.

With 12.5cm between the maize seeds in each row, there is 30% more space between seeds, and therefore 70% more space available for each plant, so the roots can spread out in the soil better.

The drill has a three-part hopper, and can also place a side strip of fertiliser.

Everything can be controlled from the tractor cab, such as whatever tramline spacing the farm uses.

For Irish farmers, technology of this kind could open up the possibility of an alternative to sowing maize under plastic.

Sowing under plastic allows Irish farmers plant maize as much as three weeks earlier, thus stretching the growing season, and bringing the harvest forward.

Especially for our southernmost maize growers, many of whom sow uncovered maize, the extra yield achieved in Pöttinger trials is interesting, and there is also the possibility of companion cropping.

The Pöttinger Aerosem can sow a companion crop with maize — as well as converting to drilling cereals, making the machine something of an all-rounder, and the only one-pass machine capable of this, according to Pöttinger.

In its first year of maize companion crop trials, Pöttinger UK sowed fescue grass with maize for silage, and found this increased the maize yield 7%, which is attributed to suppression of weeds, and the grass helping to support the harvest machinery.

Grazed by sheep after maize, the grass can also qualify as Ecological Focus Area in the UK, and can absorb digestate from farms with anaerobic digesters.

According to Shaun Groom of Pottinger UK, a second year of UK trials will further investigate companion cropping.

Only 16 years in the seed drill business, but already in the top three in the EU, Austrian machinery manufacturer Pöttinger has been very innovative, and no doubt has ambitions to become a world leader in this area, which it is already in the silage wagons and other grass machinery for which Pöttinger is best known.

In 2001, Pöttinger bought the plant at Bernburg in eastern Germany where it manufactures most of its tillage equipment.

Since then, it has been first on the market with a 9m seed and fertiliser trailed drill (the flagship in the Terrasem range), and has achieved a 10% UK market share with the Vitasem.

But the Aerosem launch in 2014 was a big breakthrough, winning the Agritechnica Machine of the Year title, and the Aerosem now accounts for a significant share of Pöttinger seed drill sales.

Pöttinger increased its seed drill sales 20% in the past financial year, and tillage and seed drill machines are now 28% of sales for the company, which has reached €301m in annual turnover.

Pöttinger Ireland general manager Diarmuid Claridge, a recent appointment, says the Aerosem is a big seller here, with “a lot of orders” on the company’s books, with buyers attracted by features such as maintenance-free operation; and the versatility of combining the seeder with a disc or power harrow, or Pöttinger’s Fox seedbed implement, depending on soil conditions.

At a recent press event at Bernburg, Mr Claridge said the company’s drill and cultivator combinations comply fully with EU safety directives — an important point, now that Health and Safety Authority officers here have been clamping down on unsafe combinations.

For example, on Pöttinger’s Tegosem cover crop seed drill, the seed hopper, loading platform, and steps match each other, for operator safety.

Seen for the first time in Ireland at the FTMTA show in February, the Tegosem can drill a wide range of cover crops, grass, rapeseed, peas and beans, etc, with electrically driven metering and pneumatic seed distribution.

At the event at Bernburg, Pöttinger also unveiled the wave disc reduced cultivation tool for the Terrasem drills, for in-line, low-disturbance seedbed preparation.

Only a 50mm stripe around the seed slot is disturbed.

This enables successful seeding in borderline conditions, particularly in heavy, damp soils. It also reduce s germination of weeds, even blackgrass.