Features

Seeding on the roll

More farmers and contractors are finding the benefits of rolling seedbeds to preserve soil moisture and increase soil-to-seed contact. Dal-bo’s latest seeding innovation does just that.

Selling more than 10,000 units in Europe, DAL-BO of Denmark is one of Europe’s largest producers of Cambridge rollers. The company’s success is now being duplicated in New Zealand.
According to David Donnelly, manager of Origin Agroup, New Zealand distributor of DAL-BO, most roller drills only have a three-metre working width and use a peg wheel seed metering system.
“This has worked satisfactorily until now, but with the shortage of experienced tractor operators, higher fuel costs and the poor accuracy of peg wheel metering systems on small seed such as turnips and clover, we have been forced to find a more accurate and higher capacity roller seeder.”
A new solution has been found by the fitting of a precision air seeder manufactured by Hatzenbichler on to a 6.3m hydraulic folding DAL-BO roller resulting in a one-pass roll seeder.
Mathew Beattie contracting of south Taranaki was the first of several contractors to order the new machine. Beattie has been contracting for over 20 years specialising in ground cultivation as well as hay and silage with up to six employees in the season. Previously the user of a three-metre Roller drill, he decided on the DAL-BO roller seeder to achieve more throughput.
“I can now double my work rate with the 6.3m working width and still only use one tractor and operator! Time is money, so purchasing the DAL-BO roller seeder was a logical decision for me,” Beattie says.
“On the first day we took delivery of the roller seeder, we were going to sow grass after a potato crop. The soil conditions were wet and sticky and normally a pass with a cultivar it would have been necessary to dry out the soil first,” he says. “But we used the DAL-BO and its front-mounted hydraulic controlled leveling board to do one pass over the ground first and it worked just like a cultivator by crumbling the soil and drying it out. After just a few hours we were able to roll seed.”
The next job was to level and re-grass a pugged up paddock. By using the leveling board to scratch the surface, Beattie says he was able to work the soil, level the paddock and sow new grass all at the same time in one pass.

DAL-BO’s proven experience in roller design has transformed the traditional roller into more than a roller, says Donnelly. This has been achieved by the adaptation of a heavy-duty crackerboard operating to the full width of the roller.
It works by producing a bow wave in front of the roller and with speeds of 7kph or more, the vibration from the individual leaf spring tines that form the cracker leveling board crumble the soil – even hard clay clods get broken down with the soil being leveled at the same time. Any clods missed are smashed by the heavy Cambridge rings, resulting in a seedbed straight after the plough in light to medium soil. Donnelly says this will save at least one or two passes in heavier soil to achieve a seedbed.
Most folding rollers do not distribute the weight evenly over all roller sections, but DAL-BO’s exclusive hydraulic “DUOFLEX” system with a gas accumulator overcomes this by transferring the weight of the roller evenly over all sections, ensuring even soil consolidation over the full working width.
DAL-BO’s Maxi Roll with Air seeder is an implement that is more versatile than you would expect, achieving excellent results with less maintenance costs, better consolidation and a far higher degree of seeding accuracy.
Precision seed distribution is achieved by a HATZENBICHLER air seeder.
These seeders are well known in Europe for their simplicity and accuracy, sowing rates from as low as 800gm per hectare and the sowing of most types of seed possible.
“The air seeder can be purchased with various options, such as different seed box capacities, fan drive options and the choice of either mechanical or fully electric dosage roller drive systems,” says Donnelly. “A computer controller is also available, which is operated from the tractor cab. The most impressive feature of the computer controller is that you only have to calibrate all your different seed types into the computer once and never have to do it again.”
Maxi Roll rollers are available with or without air seeders fitted, ranging from 5.3m up to 9.5m working widths and have a narrow transport width from only 2.50m.

All DAL-DO rollers can be retro fitted with the air seeder and a mounting kit at a later date if it is not required at first.

For more information contact your local Origin Agroup outlet or call
David Donnelly, tel (07) 823 7582.

 

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