IAM
More spraying days – better coverage
“With this sprayer, I can use 50L less water per hectare, compared to my previous conventional sprayer”
Season has already begun at Jan Wagner when we arrive at his house in Groß Hundorf in Germany. It is the end of March; the sun is shining from a clear sky, and Mr. Wagner has just sent his 1 year old HARDI COMMANDER 7000 in the field.
The former agricultural advisor invites us to his office in his private residence. “We have been farming here for almost 25 years”, he says. “But for the last three years, we have combined forces with two other farms from the neighbourhood, this way we can share machines and thereby lower our costs.” Of the total amount of approx. 1,700 hectares, Jan Wagner owns the 550 hectares. “Our most important crops are definitely wheat, followed by winter rape and winter barley, they represent 600, 480 and 250 hectares accordingly. Besides that, we have a bit of triticale, beans, peas and maize.”
A lower weight and more spraying days. Besides Mr. Wagner, 3 seasonal workers help with the daily work. Jan Wagner’s son, who is studying a Master degree in agriculture, is helping out. He is also today’s spray driver, and after a talk in the office, we drive towards one of Mr. Wagner’s fields 30 km away. His HARDI COMMANDER 7000 with 36 m. TWIN FORCE boom was delivered in April 2016 and is now driving its second season.
“I needed a machine with just one axle and a smaller tank. I wanted to keep the weight down to lower the pressure in the field, but still have the capacity of a bigger sprayer.
The TWIN FORCE system is giving me that. This way I can use a smaller tractor than ifI had chosen a bigger sprayer.” He says. “With this sprayer, I can use 50 litres less water per hectare, compared to my previous conventional sprayer. Today we spray at 100-160 litres per hectare at 10-11 km/h. We do that 7-8 times per year and is thereby covering around 13,000 hectares in total. Besides the less use of water, I have the possibility to spray with a 025 FlatFan nozzle at 2.5-3 bar. This gives me a fine droplet, covering the whole crop a lot better than with a coarser nozzle. This is the result of the TWIN system’s ability to angle the air stream and thereby the course of the droplets, besides minimizing drifts. The possibility of spraying in more wind conditions has also affected my choice of sprayer. I believe we have up to 20% more spraying days now than with the conventional sprayer.
The future. When talking about the future of the farming industry, Jan Wagner is convinced that there will be focused on self-driving tractors. “This would really be a benefit for me, if it resulted in me not being dependent on having a driver on the tractor, but able to use this capacity somewhere else. Besides that, I think the tendency of less, but bigger farms will still be seen in the future. The economy in German farming is on a decent level now, and I believe it will be even better in the future, so my life as a German farmer is pretty good”, Jan Wagner ends with a smile.
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