The sower and the seed Väderstad-Verken

THE SOWER AND THE SEED

The Swedish company Väderstad-Verken AB produces machines for soil cultivation and drilling. Joseph Altham spoke to Väderstad’s deputy managing director, Johan Orrenius, to find out about an innovation from Väderstad with a genuine claim to be groundbreaking.

Väderstad is a village in southern Sweden, near Linköping. The Väderstad company was founded in 1962 by a farmer in the village, Rune Stark. In the beginning, the firm made tine harrows that were suitable for the heavy clay soil of the surrounding landscape. Back then, the firm operated out of a workshop on the farm. Today Väderstad employs 700 people on a large factory complex and offers a wide range of durable machines for soil tillage and seed drilling.

The company has held on to its instinctive understanding of what farmers want, together with a knack for devising new machines that can meet their requirements. Väderstad sells to 30 different countries its most important markets being Sweden, UK, Russia, Germany and France. Crister Stark, who is the son of the founder, serves the company as its chairman. In 2011, King Karl Gustav awarded Mr Stark the Seraphim Medal for his contribution to Swedish industry.

However, Väderstad is certainly not resting on its laurels. To coincide with its 50th anniversary, the company is bringing out a new machine, the Tempo, which is designed to enable precision planting at high speed. The Tempo is the result of the largest research and development project in Väderstad’s history. “Crister Stark is a bit of an inventor himself,” says Mr Orrenius. “He really enjoys the early stage development of a new machine.”

Tempo

The Tempo is designed for the precision planting of maize, cotton and sunflower crops. “This is a new business segment for us. From contact with our customers in Germany and central Europe, we have seen a growing need for this type of machine,” says Mr Orrenius. Sunflower and maize have to be planted in a different way from grain, at a greater distance apart, so that there will be no more than 10 seeds per square metre. They must also be planted at the right depth. “When these plants are placed at uneven distance, they will mature at different stages due to the uneven competition. This slows

down growth and means the plants are not mature enough at harvest time.”

Väderstad’s Tempo machine provides the farmer with the even germination that is necessary to maximise yield. Another advantage of the Tempo is that it can do the job much faster than rival planting machines. This is because the Tempo is equipped with a pressurised seed meter and seed tube, enabling control over the planting of the seeds to be much more precise.

“Other machines have a vacuum system that is sensitive to vibration, meaning that at higher speeds you lose control of the movement of the seeds after they have been dropped. The problem for farmers was that if they tried to plant more quickly, there would be a loss of precision. To solve the problem, we developed a pressure system to control the movement of the seed from the hopper into the soil.”

The Power Shoot technique prevents the seeds from bouncing around inside the tube under the impact of vibration. As a result, the Tempo remains accurate even at high speeds. “The Tempo can retain precision at speeds of 15 or even 20 kilometres per hour. The way people view this type of machine is about to change.”

Eastern Europe

The development of the Tempo was a five-year process and involved extensive field trials in Hungary and Ukraine. In Ukraine, the Tempo has been tested on a farm near Poltava, where it was used to seed 333 hectares of maize and 110 hectares of soya. The large farms of Ukraine require a planter with a big capacity. As well as a large fertiliser hopper, the Tempo has a seed hopper that can hold 70 litres, enough to seed around 20 hectares without refilling. During the trial, it operated at an average speed of 14.8 kilometres per hour. It also managed to sow 121 hectares of maize in a single day, with variations in the seed placement of no more than 0.3 centimetres.

“We are a strong presence in eastern Europe. We have been in Russia since the 1980s and we have an assembly unit near Voronezh. In Russia and Ukraine, agricultural land is a valuable resource, and the big farm sites need high quality machines that will last a long time.”

Prospects

To make the Tempo, Väderstad needs more manufacturing capacity and is building a new production hall. “Over the past three years we have invested a total of €20 million. Two years ago, we set up a new building for component production.”

As a business specialising in the manufacture of agricultural machinery, Väderstad can afford to feel confident about its future. “Population growth is a huge challenge for agriculture. Biofuels are another important trend, as more farmland is being used to produce ethanol. We plan to stay focused on our core business and to continue as an independent player. The owners of Väderstad are the four children of the founder. They all work hard in the business and are coming up with plenty of good ideas.” n