Ireland’s Erth Agriseeder drill is making a splash Down Under with its solid construction and a touch of New Zealand know-how
Built in Ireland and available Australia-wide, the Erth Agriseeder drill is a simple disc seeder with a lot of brains behind it.
Manufacturer Erth Engineering says the Agriseeder range is a flexible drill perfect for sowing cover crops, fodder crops and cereals into existing swards or burn-off.
Australian distributors Gendore Tractors & Machinery were showing off the 24-row, 3m model at Farm World, held in Victoria last month, with managing director Derek Genoni telling tradefarmmachinery.com.au that the new model has attracted a lot of interest.
Requiring a tractor of more than 100 horsepower (75kW), the unit has a 400L hopper and weighs 1,500kg, with row spacings of 125mm.
“Most disc seeders on the market are $130,000–$150,000,” he says.
“This one is about $58,300 [including GST], because it is not as complex as all the others – it is just a simple machine.”
But just because the machine is simple, doesn’t mean the unit is without technology, with its hydraulic Autocontour secondary suspension system increasing flexibility while seeding.
The drill frames are partitioned into three eight-coulter sections with hydraulic rams linked to each other and to the unit’s rear roller – meaning that downforce per frame equalises despite the undulations of a paddock.
“Those coulters cut into the ground and as you go up and down those banks go up and down with it,” says Genoni, adding that this makes the seeder better able to handle varied conditions.
“Here, where we do try and seed in very dry conditions, you may want to put weights on it –just standard tractor weights – and job done, that’s another thing where you save a bit of
money,” he says.
Especially for the Australian release of the seeder, Gendore sells the seeders with the option of either the standard Kverneland metering unit or with the Taege metering system,
developed by the New Zealand manufacturer.
“The Taege is fully electronic and the Kveneland is purely mechanical,” says Genoni.
“So Erth do all the engineering of everything apart from the metering unit – the Taege we mount here in Australia and it has been performing magnificently.
“In under a minute you would calibrate the machine – Taege units are so far advanced in their calibration, you do that and you are done.”