The Tume Nova Combi 4000 seed and fertiliser drill is now available for demonstration via local importer Ben Nichols, offering new benefits for pasture cropping.
The company that imports the Bredal range of fertiliser spreaders and Finlada rockpickers has introduced another Finnish product to the Australian market – just in time for Spring planting season.
Importer Ben Nichols says the Tume Nova Combi 4000 seed and fertiliser drill is at the upper end of his Finnish partner’s product range.
“This ticks a lot of the boxes for high end grazing operations…there is more and more focus on pasture establishment and how people are doing that, so this machine is targeted at that market,” he says.
Suitable for direct seed sowing and minimum harrowing, the Nova Combi comes with 16 wheels in front of its 32 double-disc coulters, helping to djust and maintain sowing depths at a prescribed level.
Both seeds and fertiliser are fed into the same dual disc coulter and then slightly separated from each other within the coulter to reduce the risk of phytotoxicity, the manufacturer says.
Fully equipped with ISOBUS control, the Nova Combi also offers individual row shut off as well as narrow seed spacing. Nichols says the 4m drill can hold up to 4,500 litres, with three different types of seed or seed blends at once – enabling users to plant seeds and fertiliser at a prescribed depth and then sprinkle grass seeds on top, all in one pass.
“For example, you could sow a rye-corn or oats in a trench conventionally and then you could sow ryegrass on the top, or choose to sow alternate rows with the species blend on every alternate row and sow every other row with millet, so you don’t have inter-row competition,” he says.
“It’s not a traditional market for us to operate in… it is a niche with a unique product offering and we might be able to find some people interested in that.”
Nichols says the company is currently demonstrating the model on request from its base in Gunnedah, NSW.