NZ National Fieldays Buyer's Guide 2018: Taege
After a great success at Southern Field Days, an even larger audience can see the full Taege line-up at New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays
When it comes to being a market leader and innovator, Taege Engineering Ltd has a long history of excellence, and the Kiwi-owned and operated business is once again leading the charge in the agricultural community, with the release of its new groundbreaking 4.8m Air Tyne Drill.
The Canterbury-based business recently unveiled its newest technology, revealing the 4.8m air tyne drill at the Southern Field Days in Waimumu and Central Districts Field Days in Feilding.
"The response was overwhelmingly positive," Taege sales manager Trevor Goodeve says. "Dealers are fizzed up about the machine. They’re telling their clients to come and have a look; it is our new jewel in the crown. We’ve already had more than $2.5 million worth of enquiries off the back of Southern Field Days alone, resulting in orders through winter ready for the spring sowing season."
Now, an even larger audience can see the full Taege line-up and its latest design at New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays®.
The centrepiece of the Taege Fieldays site will undoubtedly be the 4.8m air tyne drill. Key features of this drill are its width, stability, and suitability for hill work, its ability to gull wing and contour follow with the terrain, and its ease of calibration and accuracy.
However, the essence of the new drill’s success starts with Taege’s flexible ‘S’ tynes. "The secret to Taege drills is how the tynes are mounted to the galvanised steel frame, which Taege Engineering holds a worldwide patent for," Trevor says. "That patented design is responsible for 50% of all Taege drill’s success, and the other 50% is our metering system."
The box section on which the tyne mounts is twisted forward when welding it onto the chassis. This makes the tungsten-faced tips entry point lag behind the mounting point.
"This provides the three essential elements we want out of our ground engaging equipment: penetration, contour following, and trash clearing. We don’t use the weight of the drill to penetrate into the ground; it’s how we mount the tyne that is key to performance."
As the tractor pulls forward, the drill penetrates the ground. The tyne vibrates like a jackhammer pulling itself in and creating tilth – the fine soil that grows seed.
The narrow 6mm-wide tungsten tip and boot is raked back on an angle. Fertiliser goes down the front spout and the seed goes down the back, providing a different drop height, delivering 45mm of tilth, then fertiliser with an even distribution of seed on top.
"Our drills have 121mm spacings between each tyne. This narrow width is the preference for grass farmers." Teage Engineering has traditionally made three-metre, 3.6-metre, and
six-metre drills.
The new 4.8m drill bridges the middle gap, providing farmers and contractors with a new level of efficiency, accuracy, and productivity, while making use of the latest technology.
"As tractors have increased in horsepower, the implements have become wider to keep up," Trevor says. The new drill folds up to under 3.1 metres, making it road legal. When folded out in drill mode, it creates huge contour following.
"This contour following or gull winging is built into the wings ram slots, enabling them to be used in uneven surfaces or where there are humps and hollows.
"The last place we feel needs drilling correctly is the hill, therefore, our research and development has trended toward air systems enabling effective hill drilling with an even spread of seed, even on the uphill side."
Trevor explains that air feed is needed for wide drills or when being used on the hill to drill correctly. "Without it, there would be an uneven placement of fertiliser and seed. The drills have two or three hoppers: seed, fertiliser, and perhaps a third hopper for slug bait or clover."
A large fan sucks warm air through a radiator on the side of the drill. The radiator has two functions: one is used to cool the oil flow from the tractor to run the fan and the second provides warm air through the xdelivery system.
"On cold drizzly days, damp air can block any system, as fertiliser and moisture don’t mix, so why not utilise the warm air off the radiator? Seed and fertiliser are metered separately into these airflows. The product is then pumped high up into the towers and distributor head domes."
From there, the products are delivered evenly to the boots. All hoses have fall on them from the tall distributor heads, even on the uphill side.
Taking pride in the feedback received from Field Days around the country, Trevor describes Taege Drills as the quickest and most accurate on the market to calibrate using the latest technology touch/swipe screen computer.
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