Rovic Holdings is making spreaders, under its own name and with new features to make fertiliser application more precise than ever
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The new Rovic spreader
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Rovic Australia has launched a new range of 10 trailed spreaders with new features it says could represent a 30 per cent saving in fertiliser use.
The company formerly produced models under the Connor-Shea and later Grasslands brands in the 1990s, but is making a return to Australian agriculture with the new models.
The four largest models in Rovic’s GSR spreader range, able to carry between 12.5 tonnes and 20 tonnes of fertiliser, come equipped with Rovic’s Twin Chain Technology, which Rovic’s director of Australian operations Peter Piddington says works with GPS positioning to give the farmer full control over the machine.
“The majority of trailed spreaders on the market have a large wide belt, or a large wide chain, whereas we have a split chain, so a chain on the right and the left, and the machine can vary the speed of both of those in conjunction with the speed of the discs,” he says.
“If you have a 36m spreader but you only have 24m left in the paddock, the computer will actually slow the machine down to narrow it, so you are not spreading fertiliser over ground that has already had fertiliser applied.
“This leads to a saving of somewhere between 15 and 30 per cent of fertiliser by using true variable rate,” he says.
Rovic uses the TeeJet ISOBUS controller for its spreaders, which Piddington says can map the entire paddock after one outside lap is completed.
“In Australia they are mostly known for sprayer technology but in Europe and America they have also been working on spreader technology and bringing that over here,” he says.
The spreaders come with a two year warranty on the bin and a five year warranty on the chain, while the spreaders themselves are equipped with stainless steel parts where possible, right down to the nuts and washers.
This equips them for urea spreading, though Piddington says the machine is also capable of spreading material including manure and clay.
Rovic will be distributing the spreader range across the country, Piddington says.