German agricultural machinery manufacturer Amazonen-Werke is celebrating the sale of 750,000 of its ZA fertiliser spreaders. The company has suggested that the impressive figure of three quarters of a million fertiliser spreaders is one that no other manufacturer can match.
The origins of the ZA go back to the 1958 when Dr Heinz Dreyer and his cousin Klaus Dreyer has just taken over as third-generation owners of Amazone. Almost immediately, Dr Dreyer invented the first ZA twin-disc fertiliser spreader with its 330 litre capacity and a 10m working width. In accordance with its design as a centrifugal mounted spreader (zentrifugalstreuer anbaumaschine), he called it the ZA.
This first ZA provided enormous improvement in the effectiveness of mineral fertiliser application. In comparison with the then existing full-width box spreaders, it was unique in its larger working width and, compared to the single disc and pendulum fertiliser spreaders around, offered a much higher precision.
In the course of the ZA’s history, Amazone has launched to the market numerous subsequent ranges – each with higher and higher capacities and wider and wider working widths. However, the basic design principle of that first ZA has been maintained up until today: a twin hopper with two contra-rotating spreading discs running at a constant speed, creating a mirrored spread pattern and a maintained accuracy to the left- and right-hand side of the tractor.
With regard to precision, ZA fertiliser spreaders have again and again set new standards resulting in both savings in the material being applied as well as a more environmentally-friendly application. The milestones have included swivel blades for late top dressing; the interchangeable disc system for wider and variable working widths; the Limiter boundary spreading device and SBS; and the Soft Ballistic System, which ensures gentle fertiliser treatment during spreading.
Also important progress has been achieved thanks to the introduction of hydraulics and electronics. So, today’s ZA programme fulfils the highest demands on precision thanks to weigh-cell technology, the GPS automatic headland and part-width section control as well as the use of convenient Isobus terminals.
The most recent ZA-TS series consists of models with weigh-cell technology and Isobus regulated electronics and comes in hopper sizes from 1,700 litres up to 4,200 litres, and with working widths from 18m to 54m. This means the maximum capacity today is ten times bigger and in a maximum working width that is more than five times wider than those first ZA-spreaders of 1958.
With the new spreader series, Amazone has also introduced the TS spreading system with its disc integrated AutoTS border spreading device onto the market, via which the fertiliser can be spread quite deliberately up to the field’s border. Thanks to the AutoTS, a lateral distribution to a level of precision that up to now has not been possible is achieved also on the headland. This means, in comparison with other border spreading systems currently available, significantly higher yields in the area encompassed by the field’s border.
For more information visit: www.amazone.co.uk.
