It is why farm manager Sandy Norrie chose a Kverneland Exacta TL GEOSPREAD to handle fertiliser applications.
“I was impressed with the demonstration of how GEOSPREAD works when visiting the Turriff show and thought it was worth a closer look,” he says. “After applying 4,600 tonnes of fertiliser and covering almost 20,000 acres in our first season, I’m very impressed.”
Cropping includes 3,521 acres of winter barley, 1,350 acres of winter wheat, 925 acres of winter oilseed rape and 200 acres of spring beans. Most crops get three fertiliser applications, some get four.
Field sizes range from 7.5 up to 216 acres, and terrain is undulating, which makes 24m tramlines a nautural choice. Spreading output is as impressive as the machine’s accuracy.
“On a good day in the right conditions, and with bags brought to the spreader, we can cover up to 550-600 acres/day,” he says. “We’ve gained so much productivity from this new litre spreader that we no longer have to depend on using a second spreader to get over the ground.”
Sandy Norrie, farm manager at AJ Duncan is very impressed with the Exacta TL GEOSPREAD.
“I am confident of the GEOSPREAD’s abilities,” he says. “It makes a top job of spreading virtually any fertiliser quality at 24m. With auto stop/start and section control, we can handle any size and shape field too.”
“We’ve had no overlaps or double dosing – our crops have looked fantastic since benefitting from a higher level of application accuracy.”
With confidence inspired by the GEOSPREAD system, Mr Norrie is now looking at carrying out variable rate P and K applications for 2014.
“I’d also like to try putting a second spreader on the front linkage so we can apply two products in one pass,” he says. “It costs around £3.50/acre to go spreading, and over 6,000 acres, there is the potential to save £21,000 by combining two applications in one pass. GEOSPREAD has given us a very accurate and very impressive spreader.”
5th February 2014
