Kuhn unveils 14.5m mower for high HP harvesters
With most forage harvester manufacturers offering machines touching 1000hp, the logistics puzzle has always been ‘dropping” grass and pulling into a swath big enough to feed the “beast”.
A British contractor recently demonstrated the capabilities of precision machinery in modern farming.
Using an 8-row Kuhn Maxima 3TL E-drill and RTK-GPS guidance, Michael Tomlinson created a 4ha maize maze at the National Forest Adventure Farm in Staffordshire.
The maze, its theme celebrating 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing, was crafted in a single pass without manual intervention.
Tomlinson has done similar projects for 15 years, drilling a crop in two directions then marking the pattern with canes before manual hoeing. But this season it was much easier using the precision drill’s electronic section control and variable row width adjustments to get a new level of creativity.
“We took the design to a specialist, who wrote the software to allow us to use the drill to create the desired pattern,” Tomlinson said.
“We set the drill at 37.5 cm row spacing and used twice the normal seed rate. Using autosteer, electronic section control and RTK guidance to 1cm accuracy we created the maze and ended up with a spectacular result.”
In real life Tomlinson sows about 400ha of maize and fodder beet in the area. He says the drill’s accuracy of placement saves seed, cuts operator stress and results in a mature crop that’s easier to harvest.
The drill’s arrival, with its row selection control, variable row width and an integral micro-granular fertiliser applicator, will also help extend his seeding season for other crops such as canola.
According to the most recent Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey, farmer confidence has inched higher, reaching its second highest reading in the last decade.
From 1 October, new livestock movement restrictions will be introduced in parts of Central Otago dealing with infected possums spreading bovine TB to livestock.
Phoebe Scherer, a technical manager from the Bay of Plenty, has won the 2025 Young Grower of the Year national title.
The Fencing Contractors Association of New Zealand (FCANZ) celebrated the best of the best at the 2025 Fencing Industry Awards, providing the opportunity to honour both rising talent and industry stalwarts.
Award-winning boutique cheese company, Cranky Goat Ltd has gone into voluntary liquidation.
As an independent review of the National Pest Management Plan for TB finds the goal of complete eradication by 2055 is still valide, feedback is being sought on how to finish the job.
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