Lemken announced its move into single-seed drilling at Agritechnica 2013 and has now launched the pre-production version of its Azurit drill that features the novel DeltaRow placement system.
DeltaRow clearly differentiates Lemken technology from traditional approaches, in which seeds are placed in single rows. The Lemken designers have instead opted for two staggered twin rows spaced 12.5cm apart. This gives individual plants 70 per cent more surface area for growth and ensures better access to water and nutrients. The Azurit allows maize, soya beans, sunflowers and rapeseed to be sown with great precision and efficiency at forward speeds of up to 15km/hr.
The process first involves two residue wheels clearing harvest residue and stones. A fertiliser coulter then places a fertiliser band precisely in the middle between the twin rows, and a trailing trapeze packer roller closes the fertiliser groove. The trapeze rings pre-consolidate the furrows – another stand-out feature of the Lemken Azurit.
Seeds are conveyed to the singling units on-demand from a central seed hopper. The singling unit comprises two synchronised perforated discs that distribute seeds alternately onto the two double-disc coulters of the DeltaRow seeding unit. The coulters, that are guided by a depth control wheel installed centrally between them, place the seeds precisely in the pre-consolidated furrows. The twin seed rows are then closed by a V-shaped pressure roller.
Individual DeltaRow twin rows can be switched off to create tramlines, with the ability to adjust application rates flexibly to ensure that plant populations per hectare remain constant. The Azurit allows rows to be spaced with up to 87.5cm centres, and the distance between the seeding units can be adjusted down to 37.5cm.
The use of two synchronised perforated discs results in each disc singling only every other seed, which keeps the diameter narrow and thus minimises circumferential speed. The time interval for the singling process is sufficiently large to achieve substantial qualitative improvements in longitudinal distribution and double seeding.
For more information visit: www.lemken.com.
