It's about accurate seed placement - Kuhn North America

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top USER SURVEY It‘s about accurate seed placement topagrar conducted a survey among more than 600 drill owners, asking them to assess their machines. These are the findings: lift requirement is high on many machines, seed placement is not accurate on some and build quality could be better on others. Although universal drills are becoming more popular, the traditional mounted designs continue to sell most successfully. Mounted on a power harrow or another cultivation unit, they make for compact units; and if fitted with disc coulters, they deliver good results in min-till conditions. Our survey focused on 3m and 4m drills, on which a sufficient number of questionnaires were returned for Accord, Amazone, Gaspardo, Kuhn, Lemken, Pöttinger and Rabe. The response rate for some makes was so high that we were able to differentiate the assessments by model. Before we discuss the details, we look at the general strengths and weaknesses of the various makes. The best parameter to measure customer satisfaction is the percentage of machine owners who would buy their machine again without reservation (see table 2). The front-runner in the survey for this category is Lemken, who captured a share of 91% of satisfied users who would buy the machine again. One explanation for this extremely good result is the machines’ sturdiness and fail-safe operation. Table 4 shows that on average these machines needed repair only twice every 500 hectares. The make also earned a good mark (1.5) for quality of build and secured the number one position in aftersales and parts supply (see table 3). Further key factors in a purchase decision are advice and the local dealership. 57% and 65% of Lemken users said that these two factors were critical in their purchase decision (see table 5). The premium prices for these machines, however, tend to put buyers off. Kuhn received similar assessments and on top, its failure rate of 1.5 repairs per 500 hectares is somewhat less again than its competitors. Quality of build, too, was rated slightly better (1.4) although we need to mention that these machines are more recent models that have “clocked” less acreage. Again, advice and service are key factors in the purchase decision. Selling at slightly lower prices than Lemken, the price is a critical selling point for Kuhn machines.
Table 1: General data of surveyed machines Accord Amazone Gaspardo Kuhn Lemken Pöttinger Rabe No. of evaluated questionnaires 87 301 18 33 117 22 29 Average age of assessed drills (years) 7.5 5.9 5.3 4.0 4.7 3.9 6.3 Total acreage of assessed drills (ha) Design (% of drills surveyed) 1,070 702 386 502 776 390 592 Cultivator-mounted drills 95 65 61 97 88 59 38 Linkage-m. combinations 2 12 11 0 3 9 10 Linkage-m. solo drills 3 23 28 3 9 32 52 Drilling system (% of drills surveyed) Mechanical 0 89 50 49 73 86 93 Pneumatic /pto-driven 87 3 28 21 0 14 3 Pneumatic /hydraulic 13 8 22 30 27 0 3 Owners demand ever greater hopper capacities but often criticise high lift requirements. Photos: Höner, Lenge, Willige, manufacturer How users rate the seven makes Amazone holds a top position, too. As to repairs, the green machines, which on average were 5.9 years old, received average marks. Quality of build was on par with Lemken (1.5); and just like Lemken and Kuhn, the dealer is the key selling point for Amazone buyers as well. The price, however, is not a real appetizer. This said, the units have an excellent residual value, which 47% of Amazone owners say is critical for them at the time of purchase. Accord received average marks in general. Quality of build was rated 1.9 while reliability and fail-safe operation is middle of the road. Yet, this is a good assessment in view of the average age of these drills, which is 7.5 years. During this time, they drilled an impressive 1,070 hectares. Although the overall assess- Table 2: Would you buy this make again? Lemken Pöttinger Kuhn Amazone Rabe Accord Gaspardo % ment is relatively good, as few as 69% of all owners surveyed would buy the make again. The percentage of those who are not sure about this is 23%, which is particularly high. Notably the owners of DA-S models raised criticism. The range received substantially lower marks than the DA range even though it shares many components with the latter (seed metering, coulters, tines). Some owners criticised that the ma- Yes ja Possibly eventuell No nein Quality Maschinenqualität of build Ersatzteilversorgung Parts supply Customer Kundendienst service 0 20 40 60 80 100 Table 3: Customer service and quality of build Lemken Kuhn Amazone Pöttinger Accord Rabe Gaspardo The majority of the machines assessed were manufactured by Amazone, Lemken and Accord. The Accord drills were relatively old and had worked quite some acreage. chines were outdated and awarded slightly lower marks to the hopper, the coulters and the tine harrow than the more modern competitor models earned from their owners. A particular weak point seems to be the area of machine support, because aftersales service and parts supply earned lower marks than the average survey result. Advice and local dealer are considered less critical purchase factors for this make Note 0 1 2 3 Noten The grading 1 = system sehr follows gut bis a scale 5 = from mangelhaft 1 to 5, with 1 representing excellent and 5 being extremely poor.
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It's about accurate seed placement - Kuhn North America

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