Amazone unveils flagship spreader
With the price of fertiliser still significantly higher than 2024, there is an increased onus on ensuring its spread accurately at the correct rate.
The AmaSelect system – seen here on a UX trailed sprayer – can save up to 5% of input costs by reducing overlap.
Agrichemicals can be one of the larger costs of crop production, so a new system from Amazone that suggests costs savings could be worth a look.
The AmaSelect system, available for UX trailed and Panterra self-propelled sprayers, has four individually controlled nozzles fitted in carriers positioned at 50cm intervals along the sprayer boom. The system will automatically select the best nozzle for the job according to operating conditions and, depending on variables such as field size, working width or the number of part-sections being used, it can save up to 5% of input costs by reducing overlap.
Combined with the company's GPS-Switch section control the savings can be increased by a further 5%.
In use, the operator enters the optimal pressure range for each nozzle fitted to the carriers via the machine's Isobus terminal. The system then selects and activates the most suitable nozzle for the application rate and forward speed. Once the optimum pressure range has been reached the AmaSelect switches to a smaller or bigger nozzle, or might even add a second nozzle, to meet specified target rates. In turn the GPS-Switch uses GPS to switch off individual nozzles over 50cm increments along the boom as the sprayer approaches headlands, crosses short ground or encounters obstacles.
Another feature useful to spraying contractors encountering varying tramline spacing allows the operator to select individual nozzles to match those widths, as and when required, from his seat.
As part of the standard product package all nozzles are fitted with LED lighting and the DUS Pro high pressure re-circulation system. This ensures the spray lines are always filled with a homogeneous chemical mix and ready to operate at full dose immediately across the full working width. It also prevents deposits, blockages and segregation in the spray lines, even after a prolonged shut-off.
As a further option customers can specify an intermediate kit which sees nozzle spacing reduced to 25cm intervals to allow high volume applications and to allow target heights to be reduced to less than 50cm.
The National Wild Goat Hunting Competition has removed 33,418 wild goats over the past three years.
New Zealand needs a new healthcare model to address rising rates of obesity in rural communities, with the current system leaving many patients unable to access effective treatment or long-term support, warn GPs.
Southland farmers are being urged to put safety first, following a spike in tip offs about risky handling of wind-damaged trees
Third-generation Ashburton dairy farmers TJ and Mark Stewart are no strangers to adapting and evolving.
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
Fonterra chair Peter McBride says the divestment of Mainland Group is their last significant asset sale and signals the end of structural changes.