Future-oriented system: focus on the individual plant
With the Focus, HORSCH offers the world’s most successful StripTill system which has been continuously optimised over the years to meet the increasing requirements. Philipp Horsch explains why this series combines so many future topics.
HORSCH has been building the Focus for 15 years. The first pre-series machines were launched in 2009. Over the years, the StripTill line was continuously developed further to meet the different requirements and customer requests. Due to different equipment options, the machines can work in various conditions. The Focus stands for a targeted loosening below the later row in combination with a concentrated placement of fertiliser and precise seeding in one pass. This does not only save passes but also increases efficiency.
Philipp Horsch explains the beginnings of this system: “With rapeseed, we started to focus on precise loosening, nutrient application and the creation of a root zone without straw. Thus, we were able to take rapeseed cultivation to a new level.” Especially rapeseed reacts positively to deep loosening and forms a strong root system which in turn results in more stable yields in dry years. These experiences and the co-operation with farmers, especially from German-speaking countries, led to the development of the Focus.
Most successful StripTill system
“StripTill is not a new idea”, Philipp Horsch states. It is a method that in the past 20 years experienced ups and downs. Starting in regions with row crops and wide spacings, as a variant of reduced tillage in no-till regions, with tests to place liquid manure in bands to a tighter row, the most different versions were developed and tested all over the world – however StripTill has not been able not overcome its niche existence.
“With the Focus, we took the StripTill system out of its niche. Today, from a global point of view, our system is the most successful one – with different characteristics and in different crops. To meet the increasing requirements, we want to extend the variety of our portfolio even further. This mainly applies to precision loosening to make sure that it works in more and more conditions of use – including no-till”, Philipp Horsch explains. The Focus system is very complex. It is important to find the appropriate combination of row spacing, working width and equipment because this is the challenge for participating in the market.
“To meet the requirements of the farmers, we have to offer as many row spacings as possible. We need different consolidation systems as well as the coulter systems behind them. In this respect, we can rely on a very wide range: disc, tine, direct seeding and single grain coulter systems and all of them with all tine spacing options.”
Adapting the tine spacings is very challenging from a technical point of view: “Practical experience showed that it starts at 30 cm: 30 cm for loosening, for seeding it can be narrower, e.g. a 15 cm row spacing. Starting at 30 cm, our variability is enormous, and we cover all common tine spacings”, Philipp Horsch points out.
“With the Focus, we also made the topic efficient and precise nutrient placement while seeding acceptable. Today, nobody discusses if it works but only about which nutrients are used.” The objective is to provide plants with enough nutrients while seeding. Fertiliser can either placed completely behind the loosening point over almost the entire working width or near the surface. A combination of both placement versions in a ratio of 50:50 is also possible.
Future-oriented topics
With the future in mind, the focus will more and more be on the individual plant. And we will also have to deal with the topic of larger row spacings: “It seems as if the whole topic will come down to seeding with wider row spacings and to the fact that these wider rows will be extended to more and more crops. In this context, StripTill absolutely makes sense.” The Focus combines these future topics. The focus on the individual plant is pre-defined by wider spacings, precision loosening and precise nutrient placement. Further aspects will be added in the next step.
Plant rows can be singulated more easily what in turn increases precision. The more precise the row, the sooner topics like digitisation and automation can kick in: image processing, band spraying, SpotSpraying, mechanical weed regulation. This more and more completes the picture of where we are heading in the future.
Wide range of applications
Managing water resp. humidity becomes more and more important in more and more crop areas. Especially if there is a lack of rain at the time of rapeseed seeding, the Focus TD with its targeted loosening can bring up residual humidity to the seed horizon and sow without losing any more time or water. If there is a high amount of rain after seeding, you can repeatedly observe positive effects, e.g. that the loosened soil provides an excellent downward drainage.
"With the Focus, we have taken the StripTill system out of its niche."
“The flexibility is also evident in the markets. In different regions, the Focus is sold with different arguments. The core is the same, but the external conditions are different. While in the Baltic States the machine is rather used as a safeguard against the weather as it works excellently in wet and dry conditions, in Northern Germany the harvest residue issue plays a major role. In these regions, the Focus ensures a clean root zone.” The residues of the previous crop are removed from the seed horizon and the seed-soil contact thus is improved. In the eastern regions, it is the solution in dry conditions.
However, the Focus is no universal machine. The system has its limits, especially on heavy soils if not enough fine soil can be generated in the seed furrow.
Current developments
With an increasing specialisation and the increasing extension of rotations, farmers more and more tend to have different seed system on the farm to be able to react extremely flexibly and individually to the respective crop and the conditions. “In quite a lot of farms, the Focus has become a parallel seed drill that can be perfectly used to sow different crops in spring or in autumn“, Philipp Horsch states. In the majority of cases, one or several tillage passes are carried out before the Focus is used. “From our point of view, there is no alternative to a level field with an even straw distribution. This is the only way to achieve a perfect seeding result“, Philipp Horsch summarises his experiences.
Evenness and precision start with the first stubble cultivation pass. In addition to sufficient fine soil, the distribution of straw and the first levelling of the fields are particularly important for the further course of tillage and, above all, of seeding.
“We are currently noticing another significant dynamics of the StripTill topic in the markets in combination with direct seeding. On the one hand, there are regions, especially with extreme drought, where the Focus is used as a direct seed drill, i.e. the farmers sow into the stubbles of the previous crop with any previous preparation. The objective is to use up as little water as possible and still create a defined and loosened root zone. The challenge is to create an even, sufficiently fine seed horizon.”
This is not always possible in all conditions. Especially on very heavy, very dry soils the limits are reached. The Focus also is used as a key machine in a rotation in more and more direct seeding regions. This means: the Focus is used for rapeseed and carries out the targeted loosening of the soil and the deep placement of nutrients for the whole rotation. Wheat and other crops then are sown directly for example with the Avatar with single disc coulters.
The Focus line stands for innovation and adaptability. With a clear focus on the individual plant and the increasing integration of digitisation and automation into this concept, HORSCH already is looking to the future. The wide range of use makes the Focus a reliable option given the increasing weather extremes and climate changes.