Daniel Rauchholz, President of Great Plains International, says the event will help the company continues its current growth:

“Agritechnica 2013 allowed us to strengthen relationships with our existing international customers and make new contacts in markets where we have a lot of room for growth. The event is so important because it offers an unparalleled stage to tell the world that the Great Plains brand and product offering is growing”.

The company took the opportunity to launch four new machines, with the Yield Pro YPE825 planter being the first planter designed specifically for Western Europe proving especially popular.

The new 4B discs attracted interest from across Europe, Africa and elsewhere, and the new wider models in the Turbo Max and Yield Pro meeting good demand from around the world.

Interest was received across all levels, says Simon Revell, the company's Sales Director for Western Europe:

“Great Plains already offers a range of market-leading planters. Our new model opens up a completely fresh market in those countries which set a 3m transport width on roads.

“The fact that the company is making a significant investment in developing machines specifically for Western Europe is being noted by farmers.

“The new Yield-Pro planter will also enable them to use the company's Twin Row planting system if they wish, which field trials have proven to improve yield of maize by 10% - 15%, which should be interest to all livestock farmers and the increasing number of farmers growing maize for use in digesters”.

The company's new 4B discs also attracted interest, reports Ryan Haffner, Great Plains' Exports Manager for the Southern Hemisphere:

“Responses received at the show suggest there is real demand for this kind of machine from growers of sugar cane and maize, as well as for breaking virgin land and mineral extraction.

“It is a very versatile machine and built so well it will be hard to break! We received a lot of interest from Africa, and a surprising number of enquiries from North America as well”.

The large Yield-Pro planter and wider Turbo-Max cultivator launched at the event also provoked interest:

“These are both relatively simple machines that can cover large acreages, and we had good interest in them from farmers in many regions across the world.

“The bigger Yield-Pro planters are simple, can place fertiliser with the seed, and is targeted at Africa, Eastern Europe, North America and possibly South America too.

“The Turbo Max is aimed largely at maize growing regions and uses our Vertical Tillage approach with the addition of the ability to angle the blades to achieve extra soil movement”.

HEALTHY CROPS: HEALTHY INTEREST

Finding more effective and cost-efficient ways of establishing oilseed rape remains one of the ‘hot topics' for arable farmers, as the healthy attendance at Agrovista's Grow Crop Gold open days proves.

These trials are among a number that Great Plains is working on with a range of industry partners, and have been producing some valuable observations.

At STOUGHTON, Leicestershire, Agrovista's Mark Hemmant highlighted the impact that establishing the right density of crop has on yield, and the ability of oilseed plants to recover from setbacks during the season:

“Some of the plots went from looking very poor in April to looking decent in May and because they got the right mix of sunshine and weather at pollination went on to yield 4.5 tonnes/ha. A low plant population can compensate very well providing we look after it properly”.

There was also a significant difference in crop establishment according to whether straw had been chopped and spread or incorporated:

“We saw much better establishment where the chopped straw left on the surface had been parted and swept aside by the Great Plains' Simba DTX leg, so the seed falls straight on to the soil directly above a restructured zone, so it can quickly establish a good, deep rooting system.

“Establishment where the straw had been incorporated was less efficient, possibly because straw breakdown can reduce soil temperature by four or five degrees”.

At DONCASTER, running a restructuring tine through the ground just ahead of planting oilseed rape is showing real benefits.

As reported in previous updates, Great Plains ran a Simba ST bar ahead of a Yield-Pro Planter to restructure below the seedbed – an operation that is producing stronger, better rooted plants, says David Holmes, UK Sales Director:

“The precision planting accuracy of Yield-Pro planters ensures every plant has a dedicated rooting zone. We are keen to see whether these benefits can be realised in oilseed rape, which is recognised as a ‘lazy rooting' crop.

“Sample plants taken from the rows planted by the ST Bar and YP planter had bigger roots than those from rows planted without restructuring, which is important, as we know the bigger the plant's root system before the winter shut down the better it is likely to yield.

“This is also great insurance against variable weather – whether it is wet or dry. If the winter is wet, excess water will be able to drain away freely, avoiding the threat of water-logging and drowning the roots.

“If conditions are dry next summer we know the plant will be able to access moisture from deeper in the soil and achieve its full yield potential”.

SPEED OF THE ESSENCE FOR SCOTS

The need to speed up cultivations but still work in a way that does not risk compromising the quality of seedbeds or losing the tilth from the surface remains upper-most in farmers minds, reports Territory Manager Craig Thomson following the Agriscot event.

Many visitors to the company's stand at the event said yields had suffered due to the wet autumn of 2012, but were now confident that things should improve:

“This year they have very good looking crops thanks to the good autumn and the countryside is looking the best it has for some time. You can't blame them for looking forward to 2014 and hoping things continue to improve”.

At the event Great Plains exhibited a 3m X-Press and ST Bar and a CultiPress, with the latter drawing significant interest:

“After a dry autumn farmers who still plough are reconsidering how they break that down into a seed-bed, and the CultiPress offers a faster and less costly option than the traditional power harrow, with its DD roller leaving cultivated ground waterproof during the crucial period between ploughing and drilling”.

ULTIMATE TEST FOR SLD

Great Plains' Simba SLD cultivator received a thorough examination and evaluation in the hands of Mervyn Bailey, joint editor of leading farm machinery magazine Profi.

He spent two days working the machine in a field near our Sleaford headquarters, and his assessment of the machine will appear in a future edition of the magazine, most likely to be around the time of LAMMA 2014:

“We like to complete these thorough tests on machines that have been in the market for a couple of years. The SLD assessment will first be featured in our British edition, but as the machine is also being sold in Germany could also feature in the German edition as well”.

Publication is due to be in February 2104's Profi magazine, which comes out just ahead of the LAMMA 2014 show.