“We bought an Kverneland Exacta TL GEOSPREAD from Irelands Farm Machinery in spring 2020 to maintain reliability and keep our kit up-to-date,” explains Mat Grant. “This time, we had the very latest dual screen Tellus PRO terminal which has more processing power for variable rates.” From the 1,050-acre Highfield Farm near Cadwell in Lincolnshire, GB Grant’s previous GEOSPREAD model had applied over 2.5 million kilos of product, equating to over 4,500 bags of fertiliser. All with impressive accuracy and efficiency.
“We just couldn’t fault our old spreader,” explains Mat. “Auto start-stop and auto section control were always accurate, and the spreader’s reference sensor compensated for all our in-field slopes and steeper gradients.” Mat says that 319 tonnes were applied to over 5,400 acres during 2022, representing a fertiliser value of £95,436. “This is a reminder that you can’t afford to overlap when applying fertiliser,” he adds. “And the last 10 years of using GEOSPREAD has reinforced that.”
Where tramlines had been at 20m, the farm has gone wider this year with a move to 28m. “We have confidence in the spreader’s ability to easily work at this wider setting,” he says. “It coincided with a cost-effective widening of our sprayer’s boom, so we can now get over the sprays and fertiliser workloads with greater timeliness and efficiency.” Specification changes have been few. A set of storage wheels have been bought to avoid pallets, and a ladder has been added to the side of the hopper.
“When we start spreading at 28m in spring, the extra output will bring better timeliness,” he says. “Spreading wider avoids the need to go faster – at 12kph, we’ll be comfortably on top of the job.”
