CNH Industrial, Muthing, Rauch and Continental among those recognised for innovations by Agritechnica organisers, despite the event's cancellation
Even though the world’s biggest farm machinery show has been cancelled, the traditional medals for new innovations, normally awarded ahead of Agritechnica, have been presented.
Originally scheduled for November 2021 in Hanover, Germany, the biennial show was then postponed to February 27-March 5, 2022. As more cases of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant emerged, the show’s organiser, DLG, was forced to cancel the event.
Agritechnica normally attracts 2,800 exhibitors and over 486,000 visitors to the Exhibition Centre. The next show is scheduled for November 12 to 18, 2023.
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NexCo’s automated carrier for tillage equipment won gold
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The DLG Gold Medal Award for Innovation was awarded to German company NeXaT GmbH for its unique NeXaT, which is an autonomous carrier vehicle that can carry all implements needed for tillage work.
Designed for larger arable farmers, the machine was built to save time, compared to travelling to paddocks each time with tractors and implements.
With the 12-metre version, the system is designed such that 95 per cent of the total field area is never driven on in the envisaged bed mode, resulting in high yield potentials with good soil and environmental protection.
The NeXaT is designed as an autonomous working machine and is equipped with a peripheral monitoring system. A cab that can be rotated by 270 degrees is available for process monitoring.
This establishes the basis for fully automated machine operation and enables manual vehicle guidance during transport.
The integrated implements are mounted between the four large, electrically-driven track running gear units, which can be rotated by 90 degrees for travelling by road.
At present, power is supplied by two independent diesel engines, each offering an output of 400 kW/545hp, with generators. The vehicle is designed for alternative drive technologies such as fuel cells.
With the integrated NexCo combine harvester module, the NeXaT achieves grain throughputs of 130 to 200 tonnes per hour for the first time. The innovative dual axial flow concept uses a 5.8m-long axial rotor mounted transverse to the direction of travel. The flow of harvested material is introduced centrally into the rotor and at a tangent to achieve energy efficiency. The rotor divides it into two material flows. This enables roughly twice the threshing performance of conventional machines and establishes the prerequisite for uniform straw and chaff distribution with two choppers, even with a cutting width of 14 metres.
Grain delivery is ensured by a 32m cubic metre grain bunker, because of which the combine harvester unit does not require a transfer vehicle on normal-length fields. Transfer to the transport vehicle can take place on the headland with an unloading capacity of 600 litres per second.
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New Holland’s baler automation system allows the user to set the desired bale weight directly on the baler
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In total there were 16 winners of silver medals – here are six of the highlights.
The big baler automation system from CNH Industrial’s New Holland is now the first system in which an operator can set the desired bale weight directly on an agricultural square baler.
Talking silver, this system then foresightedly and independently undertakes machine guidance and regulation of both the tractor’s speed and the baler settings.
This is a crucial evolution towards fully automatic operation of a square baler. A LiDAR sensor (light detection and ranging) optically measures the windrow ahead of the tractor by means of a laser, and an IMU sensor detects the tractor’s acceleration and orientation.
The information from the tractor’s GPS sensor is additionally processed to achieve even greater accuracy. The tractor is therefore guided fully automatically over the windrow and its speed is adapted foresightedly to the windrow conditions.
At the same time, the data that is collected is used to constantly pre-calculate the bale weight to adjust the baling pressure setting and, via the vehicle speed, the layer thicknesses of the individual piston strokes. As a result of this, the baler is continuously running at high capacity even in the case of changing harvesting and yield conditions, and the same pre-set bale weight is always achieved.
CNH’s OptiSpread automation system was another silver medal winner. New Holland has also developed this system, the first chopped material distribution system with direct measurement technology. 2D radar sensors mounted on both sides of the combine harvester measure the speed and the throw of the chopped material.
The sensors register the entire throw and, therefore, the distribution pattern. If the distribution pattern no longer corresponds to the nominal distribution pattern over the entire working width, the rotational speed of the hydraulically driven feed rotors on both sides is either increased or reduced separately until the distribution pattern once again corresponds to the nominal pattern. The technology registers irregular chopped material distribution even with a tailwind or headwind, and additionally enables a distribution map to be produced.
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Muthing’s CoverSeeder intercrop sowing system combines several steps into one process
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Muthing won silver for its CoverSeeder, which combines familiar components to form a new intercrop sowing system that incorporates all steps in a single operation.
Specifically, a front-mounted harrow ensures fine soil and improves straw distribution. A trailing flail mulcher shreds the straw and stubble, and removes harvesting residues close to the ground from the seed bed thanks to the high suction power of the flail rotor.
The total resulting mixture is conveyed over the subsequent seed rail, which places the grains on the exposed bed. The seeds that are placed on the cleared surface of the soil are then covered by the processed organic material. Once the seeds have been sown and covered, a following prism roller ensures the soil contact required to achieve good germination. The roller also guides the height of the CoverSeeder.
Forgoing intensive tillage in combination with a full covering layer of biomass protects the soil from evaporation and erosion, and provides the water required for germination even in extremely dry conditions.
Continental won silver for its Agro ContiSeal, which is a system that seals punctures on tyres when they hit a nail or other sharp object, normally during harvest time.
Due to the size and the weight of the machines and tyres, and because of the ensuing time and performance losses during the short sowing and harvesting seasons, changing a tyre on the field leads to significant delays in production.
Agro ContiSeal provides a viscous polymer on the inner side of agricultural tyres that seals the leak if the tread is penetrated by foreign bodies. Despite the damage, the vehicle can continue to be driven and the tyre can be repaired or exchanged later.
German company Rauch won silver for its TerraService, a joint development with AgriCircle AG, that offers farmers a digital service with which they can calculate the navigability of arable land in advance.
The user must input the machine data required to do this or must call up data that has already been stored. The local soil moisture is estimated by means of radar measurements performed by the Sentinel-1 satellites in combination with weather data.
Supplemented with information regarding the soil structure, this machine and soil moisture data is used to comfortably calculate the navigability of the agricultural land in advance on a portable terminal and is displayed for the specific partial areas in a 10-metre grid.
If necessary, the user is provided with a warning or a message if the ground is not navigable or is only navigable to a certain extent. The sequence in which the fields are driven on, the entry position into large fields and the processing sequence of the ruts can also be optimised or defined to prevent becoming bogged down.
The service is flexible and can be used for various agricultural work processes such as fertilisation, spreading liquid manure and crop protection, and helps farmers to maintain a good soil condition, a good soil structure and, therefore, a high yield level.