Maestro ExperienceTour

In the past months, all over the world the spring crops maize, sunflowers, beet and beans were sown with the HORSCH Maestro single grain seed drills. Rape will follow in summer. The very wet spring delayed and complicated sowing, especially in Europe and in the East.

In 2019/2020, HORSCH launched the metering systems AirSpeed and AirVac. In the following years, the systems and the machines were optimised further, adapted and developed for different markets.
With the Maestro line, HORSCH covers a wide range of applications and offers a versatile single grain technology for different crops and applications. Basically, the design of the two metering systems are very similar and work according to the same metering principle. They guarantee a precise grain singulation and due to the different metering discs are ideal for all common single grain crops. The AirVac system is based on the principle of vacuum singulation. The AirSpeed system works according to the overpressure principle: the grains are shot into the seed furrow.
To be able to show the different fields of application and the versatility, HORSCH visited different customers all over the world, accompanied their seed drills in the field, asked for their opinion and collected the testimonials of the farmers. The result were a lot of short, interesting videos which will be translated and synchronised in ten languages to make them available to farmers, sales partners, customers and all those who are interested all over the world.

Look beyond one’s own nose

“With the HORSCH ExperienceTour, we want to show the machines of our product range, which equipment options are available, in which conditions the machine can cope and that we virtually have something for any farmer all over the world – large and small machines, different metering systems, AutoForce, machines for direct seeding or special methods with the combination of Focus and Maestro“, Thomas Murr, responsible for single grain technology in the HORSCH product marketing, explains. This provides the opportunity to look beyond one’s own nose. And even if the conditions or applications are different it is possible to learn from each other and to get some new ideas for one’s own farm and cultivation system. For the machines may look quite similar in every country of the world, but there are different possibilities for the farms hidden behind this common look.
Why, for example, does one farmer use the vacuum system and another one the shot system? Another one needs special hopper divisions of the fertiliser and seed capacity, and yet another one needs a small, compact, manoeuvrable machine, etc. The videos are to show the possible applications, equipment options, etc. on different farms around the world.

Practical experiences

Florian Uherek, farmer and contractor from Germany, farms 400 ha and has specialised in row crops. Among other things, he sows sunflowers, maize, soybeans and rape with his Maestro 18 SV. Why did he choose the Maestro SV with a central seed hopper?
Due to the large central seed hopper - especially for large seed quantities when sowing soybeans - efficiency and hectare output of the Maestro SV are excellent. Another asset is the easy handling of the machine. The right sowing disc is quickly inserted, and any further handling can be carried out via the terminal. "This is very easy for the driver and also increases efficiency," Uherek explains in the video. In addition, he was also impressed by the good placement precision and the excellent accessibility of the machine
The AutoForce system, an automatic coulter pressure control system for an optimum embedding of the grains in changing sowing and soil conditions, guarantees an even placement depth in all conditions. A "huge advantage" for the contractor whose machine is used in different field conditions.

Arkadiusz Grzech has leased a farm in Poland. He uses the Maestro 12 RV for sowing maize and sugar beet. In addition, he uses the Maestro in the 3-point of his Focus TD. He opted for this combination for several, mainly economic reasons. One aspect was that it allows for carrying out tillage, fertiliser placement and sowing in one pass. "Thus, we can save time, labour and fuel. Another important aspect is the deep placement of the fertiliser." It can be applied in two ways: via the deep placement at 20 cm by the Focus TD tines or with the underground fertiliser coulters of the Maestro next to the seed furrow together with the seed.