Sowing fine seeds with the HORSCH Maestro
Today a state-of-the-art single grain seed drill is often considered to be a universal seed drill. Thus, with our Maestro line it is possible to sow a wide range of other crops in addition to the most important single grain crop maize. Legumes like beans and peas play an increasingly important role, in warmer Southern countries the sunflower often is one of the most important crops. Moreover, in addition to sugar beets – a traditional root crop – the cultivation of rape in rows with single seed drills becomes more and more popular. Especially these two crops that are considered as fine seeds make high demands on seedbed, grain embedding and consolidation. In this blog article we describe how you can sow these crops with our Maestro line with AirVac or AirSpeed metering units and which are our technical solutions to achieve the best possible embedding, emergence and plant development.
Optimum conditions for fine seeds
To create optimum conditions for a sugar beet seedbed the top centimetres of the soil should be prepared with a fine crumbling structure to make sure that there is enough fine earth for covering the seed. At the same time, the seedbed preparation must not be too aggressive, e.g. with pto shaft driven tools, to keep the siltation risk in case of rainfall after the seed as low as possible. It is important to create as little compaction as possible; i.e. seedbed preparation should be carried out with large tyres or twin tyres. Moreover, it is recommended to loosen the tracks caused by going below them. Thus, a sufficient consolidation is all the more essential to re-establish the capillary water connection at the desired sowing depth.
When sowing beets with a Maestro you can influence the seedbed one last time if required. Due to the trash wheels at every single row organic matter as well as stones and clods can be removed from the row. With 10 possible positions the adjustment can be graduated very finely. Due to an integrated depth control the trash wheels can be set to a floating position. They themselves control the depth and adapt to the contour of the soil.
Sowing rape in late summer
When sowing rape in August or September the conditions often are different. The soil is significantly drier and often, for example after a previous cereal crop, considerably coarser. In these conditions the trash wheel can be fixed at the lowest position. The top centimetres of the mainly dry soil layer as well as straw residues and clods are removed to form small ridges between the rows. In the depression that develops as a result it is considerably easier to sow into a sufficiently wet soil layer. Moreover, the rape grains are only covered by fine crumbly earth without clods or stones and can emerge optimally.
Sowing with the HORSCH Maestro
With the Maestro the seed furrow is opened by a double disc coulter. Due to the depth control rolls the desired seed depth is perfectly kept up even in slightly hilly terrain. The parallel suspension of every single seed unit guarantees an optimum adaption to the smallest unevenness within the working width. Moreover, the coulter pressure at the seed unit is essential for a perfect maintenance of the desired seed depth. The automatic coulter pressure system AutoForce always chooses the right coulter pressure even in changing soil conditions to be able to keep up a constant placement depth. At the same time excessive coulter pressures which would cause unnecessary compactions are avoided. As an alternative, the coulter pressure can be adjusted manually at the terminal in the tractor cabin.
For fine seeds we recommend to mount a skid between the two seed discs. It can simply be inserted from below. The skid additionally levels the bottom of the seed furrow and guarantees that there are no small clods or other irregularities. Thus, the conditions for emergence are similar for all grains. The skids consist of carbide and thus, their operational life is very long before they have to be replaced.
The metering units AirVac and AirSpeed
The grain release of the beet or rape grains is carried out with our new metering units AirVac and AirSpeed via a fall resp. a shoot pipe. With the vacuum metering unit AirVac the grains fall freely to the ground, are protected by the catching roller from rolling and are slightly pressed. With the shooting system AirSpeed the grains are actively shot into the seed furrow by a airflow, braked by the catching roller, caught and embedded. This it is possible to drive faster while the longitudinal distribution of the grains remains constant. Here you will find more information about the functioning of our new metering unit generation. The catching roller of the Maestro consists of a rubber casing which is somewhat harder on the tread are and relatively soft at the sides in on the inside. Thus, the catching roller flexes and can completely fill the V-shape of the seed furrow. Moreover, a pretension is achieved which allows for pressing the grains in a targeted way.
After the placement and the embedding of the grain the seed furrow is closed by the closing wheel pair and the soil is pressed again. The profiled 50-mm-wide rubber press wheels are particularly suitable for sowing rape and beets. The profile leaves a broken surface structure and brings up a little bit of fine earth which then rests loosely on top. If it rains after sowing siltation, thus, can be prevented in a better way. As an alternative you can also work with smooth 50-mm-wide rubber press wheels, e.g. in adhesive soil conditions. The closing wheel pressure can be adjusted in 4 steps up to 55 kg per row depending on the soil conditions.
Here you will find more information about our Maestro line.