Tilling the soil Peeters Landbouwmachines

TILLING THE SOIL TILLING THE SOIL

Peeters Landbouwmachines BV manufactures agricultural machinery under the Tulip and Peecon brands. Joseph Altham interviewed Tulip’s export manager, Stijn Tilborghs, together with Peecon’s export manager, Sjors van Deursen, to find out how the company’s machines are helping farmers to produce food more efficiently.

Peeters Landbouwmachines is divided into two halves. Tulip offers machinery for arable farming, such as harrows, seed drills and fertiliser spreaders. Peecon’s machines are designed for use on grassland and are sold mainly to livestock farmers. Peecon’s main products include feed mixers, slurry tanks and slurry injection systems, but it also sells tipping trailers among others to construction firms. The company was established in 1973 in Achtmaal, in the south of the Netherlands. It has kept the factory in Achtmaal, but in 1999 it moved its headquarters and main production site to the nearby town of Etten-Leur.

Both Peecon and Tulip are successful exporters. Around 80 per cent of Tulip’s output goes for export, while Peecon’s machines have proved especially popular in Scandinavia and the United States, where some farms have up to 80,000 cows). Peecon and Tulip share a common goal. The aim is to give the farmer high production quality at a reasonable price. “Farmers want something simple and strong,” Mr Tilborghs believes. “The machines have to be durable because when the farmers need them they can’t afford to lose any time as a result of a fault.”

Harrows

Among Tulip’s most important products are its ranges of power and disc harrows. In agriculture, harrowing is carried out after the harvest to break up the stubble in the fields. Harrowing is also used to achieve green fertilisation between two seasons of wheat. Tulip offers power harrows (the Roterra range) and disc harrows that can be pulled behind a tractor. “Farmers have to use power harrows in soils with heavy clay,” said Mr Tilborghs, “but the trend is to replace power harrows with disc harrows in soils that permit it.”

Tulip’s Multidisc range of disc harrows is popular with farmers in many European countries, including Germany, France and

the UK. In 2010, Tulip added a new model to the Multidisc range, the Multidisc XL Vario. The Vario model has a special feature – the retractable tines between the discs that can be folded up or down to suit the type of soil cultivation performed.

“With the Multidisc Vario, the tractor driver can choose within two seconds whether to use the tines or not,” said Mr Tilborghs. This feature enables farmers to save fuel, as the tines take more energy to pull. “The farmer often only needs to use the tines on some of his fields. For example, on land where a lot of rain has settled, tines help to crack a layer under the surface so that the rainwater can go down into the soil. But if there is no water on the soil in the next field, the tines are not needed and the farmer can easily disable them.”

Feed mixers

Feed mixers are Peecon’s biggest export, and Mr van Deursen says that the company is finding new markets for them in China and eastern Europe. In dairy farming, the humble feed mixer plays a vital role, promoting the health of the cows and improving milk yields. “When you get a plate of food in front of you, you probably start with the meat before you eat any of the vegetables. Well, cows are just the same about their food! They need to eat grass and maize in combination, rather than starting with the maize first and ending up with the grass. Maize is what increases the milk yield, but cows have to eat grass constantly. If they eat maize alone, this is bad for their stomachs.”

The company’s Biga mixers not only help to provide cows with their total mixed ration (TMR), but are also used to produce biogas. “You can put a combination of grass and slurry together in a mixer to produce gas and heat. The gas can be used to generate electricity, and the heat is used to heat water. Some farmers now provide electricity for their whole village.”

Outlook

The innovative Peecon and Tulip machines were on show at the Agritechnica 2011 exhibition in Hanover. Here Peecon unveiled its improved slurry injection system, which it expects to sell well in Germany. As Mr van Deursen explained, in Germany slurry injection is a legal requirement, so slurry injectors are an essential piece of equipment for German farmers. With all the incentives for farmers to improve their yields, Mr van Deursen views the growth prospects for his company as favourable. “It’s very simple. The world’s population is rising, so people will need more food. And as oil and gas supplies are becoming more scarce, people are looking to farmers to provide new sources of energy.”

Recent investments, such as in a laser tube cutting machinary and a new powder coating line, mean that the company is well placed to take advantage of these trends. The company has also been obliged to increase its production capacity. “Over the last few years, our production capacity has acted as a limit on our sales,” said Mr Tilborghs. The production area at the factory in Etten-Leur will be enlarged with 9000m2, filled with welding robots and laser cutting machines in order to meet the demand. n