At the Precision Planting 20/20 event in Bugac, guests of András Börcsök had the opportunity to see firsthand what it means to work with one of the world’s best planting technologies. IThis year, at the Bugac farm, András Börcsök, together with Gergely Sebestyén, demonstrated what can be achieved with a modified John Deere 1770NT seeder in 2020. After the theoretical part, the practical demonstration followed, where attendees could observe the planting accuracy of the equipment on a prepared field. Due to the interest of several attendees in whether the machine could be integrated into no-till technology, they spontaneously repeated the test planting in a neighboring meadow, which was done without any issues.
The machine, developed by Precision Planting, uses sensors to measure soil moisture, temperature and organic matter content in a series of rows. With the help of DeltaForce, the machine automatically adjusts to maintain planting depth even at high speeds. The Speedtube conveyor system ensures that seeds travel from the seed hopper to the furrow in a controlled and consistent path.
After that came the premiere.
“Since we started working with Precision Planting, our main problem has always been the lack of a donor, no base to build the machine on. We had several attempts to integrate American technology into existing European planters, but it was very challenging. We can say that there is no frame. We realized that there is a demand in the market for which we need to develop a machine. I have been persuading Busa Bt. for years to create a carrier frame for us, and we can source the rest. They finally did it; they designed a really impressive frame that we would like to present now,” said András Börcsök.
The newly introduced machine frame combines the robustness and rigidity of American planters with the mobility and adjustability expected in Europe. The six-row telescopic chassis hydraulically adjusts from a transport width of 2.5 metres to working widths of 45 cm to 76.2 cm. The machine’s special feature is that it does all this with a patented slider system that minimises backlash due to misalignment by providing a tolerance of tenths of a millimetre. The six-row frame with its 1.7 t self-weight allows the PP DeltaForce to be used to its full potential, while guaranteeing the load capacity, as the seeder can be equipped with a 2000 litre liquid or 1700 litre granulate hopper.
After the initial tests, the machine will have to prove itself in the spring of 2021. The goal is to maintain precision even under the most challenging conditions, working across thousands of hectares.
