Various fields of application
The change in the agricultural sector is evident. There are more and more stipulations and formalities, i.e. less and less chemical substances like herbicides may be used. The Green Deal and a position paper about the use of glyphosate set a clear direction in this respect.
All this means that you have to start earlier with mechanical measures instead of using traditional soil herbicides. More and more conventional farms, too, focus on alternatives. There is a demand, and the principle is consistent. In the future, you will find mechanical alternatives in all kinds of agricultural farms – sometimes more, sometimes less distinct. This is the reason why HORSCH massively invests in the further development of mechanical weed control and intensively works on the innovations for hybrid farming technology to continue to facilitate the work of farmers and drivers.
The initial situation
To begin with we examined how the machines could look like and which cultivation systems prevail in the surroundings. What we definitely know for sure is that you need a hoe and a harrow. Precision and stability, too, are indispensable prerequisites.
Currently, the HORSCH harrow portfolio offers working widths from 6 m to 15 m in the 3-point sector and 24 m in the trailed sector. When harrowing it is particularly important to keep the field black before sowing. Thus, you can remove everything that is to be eliminated. In this respect, the solid design of the harrow has proven its worth. With a higher machine weight, you can also break the crust of heavily crusted fields in one pass, work intensively and thus save passes.
The hoeing tools are available in 6, 9 and 12 m working width as well as in 18 m working width for the export markets. The range of application and the variety of the HORSCH hoeing machines increased considerably due to additional tools.
The plan
During the past two years the company intensely built up know-how and among others dealt with reasonable and necessary equipment at the machine. We especially worked on tools to preserve the crops. But HORSCH also dealt with coulters and their shape, different widths, angle meters, protection discs and plates or with the finger hoe to fight weeds in the row.
In the harrow section HORSCH is working on an implement for sowing resp. a MiniDrill as this entails a significant added value with regard to the sowing of underseeds etc. The harrow technology, too, will be developed further. The Cura 24 is not the end of the line, e. g. with regard to handling and possibilities. The company also deals with options for an electronic control as you know it from other HORSCH machines and with other ideas and further developments.
In some markets, e. g. in Eastern Europe, the focus is not on mechanical weed control but on a mixture of mechanical weed control, targeted fertiliser incorporation and breaking the capillaries. This resulted in the idea of a fertiliser kit for the Transformer.
Frederik Schulte Ostermann, farmer at the North Sea coast in the Netherlands:
“Last winter I decided to try mechanical weed control as the stipulations for plant protection agents get stricter and stricter. I quickly found the machine of my choice: Because of our hard, clayey soils I went for a Transformer as it easily penetrates our soil and as it is so solid that wear is rather low. We grow onions and in combination with a lot of rain our fields often are extremely compacted. We tried everything from roller over compost to natural gypsum to tip open the concrete-like crust. Our Cura easily breaks the hard crust. The high weight of the machine helps to crumble the soil finely. Due to the infinitely variable adjustment of depth and pressure I get the result I want.“