Farms & Farm Machinery #401

News
BALING
Krone’s solo bale wrapper features a new ground
roller, guide roller and bale turner to make the
unit safer and more convenient
Freestyle flow
Krone has released its first ever solo bale wrapper to the
Australian market and claims the machine has the world’s
fastest single arm wrapping speed.
Boasting a speed of 36 rpm, the EasyWrap 150 runs with
fully automatic function from bale pick-up to discharge.
Krone’s assistant product manager Nathan Thomas
describes the new product as “versatile” and says it combines
several stages of the process into one.
“Be it collecting, wrapping or unloading bales, the new
EasyWrap 150 is extremely versatile,” he says.
“The fully automatic 3PL single arm wrapper can be
mounted on the front or rear linkage as well as telescopic
loaders to suit any operation.
“With its powerful wrapping technology and ability to wrap
up to a maximum bale weight of 1,600kg, farmers can rely on
the EasyWrap 150 to balance efficiency and safety, while also
maintaining maximum silage quality.”
Thomas also says safety and convenience were “top of
mind” for Krone when designing the EasyWrap 150.
One feature added by Krone is a ground roller, which means
the tractor does not have to lift the wrapper’s entire weight.
“The ground roller makes it much easier for farmers to
transport hay bales on slopes and hills – it also means
farmers can wrap heavy bales with smaller tractors,”
says Thomas.
Krone says that the EasyWrap 150 has the world’s
fastest single arm wrapping speed
There is also a bale turner to safely place a bale on its end,
a guide roller to improve guidance during wrapping and a
film roll holder with external keypad to operate from outside
the cabin.
Mounting brackets hold up to four extra film rolls, while
large bobbins improve bale control and ensure smooth
rolling, particularly in sloping fields.
John Deere’s collaboration with
the University of Sydney will test
its ExactEmerge row units on a
100-hectare cotton field
“That is important because your rate of loss accelerates
greatly after the optimum window has passed, but with
a high-speed planter, you can avoid missing that optimal
planting window. This makes an enormous contribution to a
farmer’s chance of achieving the highest crop yield possible.”
The technology has been demonstrated at the University of
Sydney’s Llara property, outside Narrabri in northwest NSW,
where the 1850-hectare farm is used to produce dryland
PLANTING
New technology currently being trialled
could see the speed of seeding double
Need for speed
John Deere is testing its ExactEmerge row units, which it
hopes will increase planting speeds to 16km/h – double the
typical speeds of standard planting.
The manufacturer is testing the speeds as part of a
collaboration with the University of Sydney, which will also
include third-party validation.
Once fully tested, John Deere hopes ExactEmerge
will provide farmers with a quicker alternative while still
maintaining accurate singulation, seed population, spacing,
applied downforce and uniform depth.
Able to integrate with both new and older planters, the
ExactEmerge technology can be used on crops such as
cotton, sorghum, sunflower and summer grains.
John Deere Australia precision agriculture manager Benji
Blevin says the collaboration with the university’s Institute of
Agriculture will highlight the technology’s performance and
its suitability for Australian conditions.
“Growers are typically used to planting at 8km/h but what
we want to show is, using ExactEmerge, they can achieve the
same accuracy at double the speed,” says Blevin.
“That ability to cover twice as many hectares as a traditional
planter in the same amount of time has the potential to
significantly shift the goal posts during the planting season.
“When you can plant at 16km/h with the confidence that
you’re not compromising seed placement, you are effectively
increasing the optimum planting window.
L-R: John Deere product specialist Anton Kowalenko,
John Deere precision agriculture manager Benji Blevin
and University of Sydney director of northern agriculture
associate professor Guy Roth
wheat, canola, chickpeas, faba beans and dryland cotton
alongside cattle.
Results of that demonstration, which tested the
ExactEmerge system on cotton grown in a large-scale
100-hecatre area, are still being finalised, but University of
Sydney director for northern agriculture Guy Roth says the
expected results look promising.
“Growing crops is a combination of having good
engineering, good agronomy and getting the timing right,”
says Roth.
“In this validation, John Deere provided the technology
and we brought academic rigour to the agronomy and soil
science, so it was the perfect opportunity to collaborate and
conduct this large-scale validation study.
“Using ExactEmerge, we were able to get a very good, even
plant stand across all the treatments and soil types which is
very important when planting cotton.”
6 Farms & Farm Machinery