Going for gold Rauch

GOING FOR GOLD

Farmers everywhere depend on the advanced technology of Rauch fertiliser spreaders. Peter Mercer speaks to Managing Director Norbert Rauch about how the company’s investment and innovation is helping to feed the world.

AT this November’s Agritechnica show in Hannover the world-leading specialist in fertiliser technology Rauch won a gold medal for its revolutionary AXMAT self-adjusting fertiliser spreader. The AXMAT is the first fertiliser spreader in the world to feature fully automatic adjustment of the spreading pattern for the required working width. An online monitoring system detects changes in the physical properties of the fertiliser granules and adjusts for these in metering and spreading; the farmer no longer needs to set the spreading pattern by manual calibration or by practical tests.

Managing Director Norbert Rauch, the third generation leader of the family business, explains the significance of this technology breakthrough for the world’s farmers. ”Fertilisers are very expensive – the value of fertiliser spread per year in Germany alone is about €2.7 bn – so controlling the exact quantity required for optimum crop yield and ensuring it is spread in the most effective way is very important for farmers. ”The first step in optimising spreader performance is to control the flow rate of the fertiliser on to the spreader discs.

Modern spreaders usually have two discs that distribute the fertiliser over widths that vary from 12m to 50m. In 1999 Rauch won a gold medal at Agritechnica for its EMC electronic flow control system. By measuring the drive torque of the spreader disc EMC can precisely calculate the correct flow rate in relation to the forward speed of the machine, the quantity of fertiliser per hectare that needs to be spread and the applicable working width. The driver simply has to enter the application rate and working width and the spreading rate is set automatically within seconds. ”With AXMAT we have now taken the second step, which is to ensure that the spreading pattern – what we call the spread fan – exactly fits the required working width. The problem is that fertiliser is not a standard product – there are probably more than 6000 types of fertiliser all over the world with granules of different weights and shapes. Until now farmers have had to use charts from the fertiliser spreader manufacturer to adjust the spreader. AXMAT is the first machine in the world that can measure the spread fan as the fertiliser leaves the discs; it then compares this data to stored information on the optimum spread fan and automatically adjusts the machine. A maintenance-free radar sensor, that was developed for us by MSO Messtechnik und Ortung GmbH, 53902 Bad Münstereifel, automatically records the expansion of the spread fan and detects any deviation from the optimum setting for the working width. ”So now Rauch can provide farmers with systems that ensure both the correct flow rate and the correct spread pattern for all that expensive fertiliser. In effect, AXMAT closes the last gap in precise fertiliser spreading automation, so optimising both the economic and environmental aspects of fertiliser application across the world.”

Trend-setting technologies

Founded in 1921 in Sinzheim, near BadenBaden, Germany, to produce agricultural machinery, Rauch developed its first fertiliser spreader in 1932. Today the company employs around 380 people and produces some 16,000 machines each year, mostly fertiliser spreaders but also winter service spreaders for use by municipal authorities to keep the roads clear in winter. Between 2011 and 2012 it increased its turnover from €69m to €75m thanks to fast-increasing demand in both the home market and in export markets such as France, UK, Poland and other Eastern European countries.

In 2009 Rauch moved its production and assembly operations to a new €20m factory at the Baden Airpark site at Baden airport. ”We closed five smaller factories in the area and brought all our production departments together under one roof,” says Norbert Rauch. ”Thanks to the perfectly coordinated process flows that this made possible we have achieved even higher levels of manufacturing efficiency. In fact, we have won an award from the ILM Institute of the University of Magdeburg for being one of the most efficient agricultural factories in a competition that included tractor manufacturers, who are generally much bigger companies than we are.”

In fact, over the years Rauch has won many national and international awards for its innovations in spreader technology and has registered more than 150 patents. Its key strategy of ‘innovation and investment’ shows itself in the continuous further devel-

opment of trend-setting technologies and the launch of new, innovative production series such as the AXMAT and the AXIS – M EMC at this year’s Agritechnica. ”To maintain the pace of our innovation and our leadership in the market it is vital that we keep up an intensive dialogue with farmers and agricultural professionals and scientists to make sure that we are completely up to speed on today’s and tomorrow’s market demands,” explains Mr Rauch. ”In fact, Rauch has been placed eighth in the latest DLG image ranking for innovative companies, among world-leading companies in the agricultural machinery industry such as John Deere, Fendt, Claas, Lemken, Amazone, Krone and Horsch. ”We are working in many areas of technology advance, including GPS, Isobus, new generation sensors and ever-increasing automation – all to optimise the agricultural process for both the farmer and the environment. In a phrase, it’s about getting much more output for less and less input. ”There are, after all, still so many problems to solve in agriculture, despite the huge advances that have been made. It would be a tremendous advantage, for example, if we had sensors that could accurately measure the level of essential nutrients in the soil – lime, nitrogen, potash, etc. – so that we could deliver exactly the right chemical mix. We are not there yet but we are further advanced in the work of ever-closer integration of the spreader – or other implement – with the tractor. The aim is to develop a modular, self-propelled machine that would be effectively controlled by the implement. So when you attached a spreader, a seed drill, a sprayer or whatever to the tractor the implement would automatically transfer all the necessary information about speed, flow rate, spread pattern etc. In effect the tractor and the different implements would become one multi-functional agricultural system.”

Global markets

Rauch serves markets all over the world; exports currently make up more than 65 per cent of output. The company is the market leader in Germany and has a very strong position in the UK, France and Italy, where it is marketed under the KUHN brand. In fact Rauch’s relationship with KUHN, a €1 bn global leader in farm machinery with sales points all over the world, gives it more direct access to markets in North, South America and Australia than it could otherwise enjoy. ”Eastern Canada is a particularly promising market for us,” says Norbert Rauch. ”Farmers there typically work huge areas and are technologically advanced so they buy a lot of European machines, including Rauch spreaders sold under the Kuhn brand. In contrast farmers in Eastern Europe, Russia and Ukraine are still a long way behind the West. During decades of state control they lost their essential knowhow and now are having to re-learn even the traditional skills. The first priorities in those markets are modern machines for tillage, drilling and harvesting but the next step will be spreaders for fertilisers and we are ready to supply what they need.”

A fast-growing world population means ever-increasing demand for food which can be met only by continually improving the productivity of agriculture and advancing the technology of the machines available to farmers is essential to this effort. ”Twenty or so years ago people had maybe forgotten how important agriculture was to us all,” says Mr Rauch, ”but now its image has changed completely. It is a high-tech industry which depends on innovation and investment, just as our own company does. You can get an idea of agriculture’s new image from the size of the Agritechnica show these days; it is now the biggest indoor show in the world, with displays covering 42 hectares, and this year it attracted 450,000 visitors. ”Productivity and sustainability are the goals of the industry and fertiliser spreaders are a key element in achieving both. After all, fertilisers account for more than 95 per cent of the cost to feed the crop so the technology advances that we are making at Rauch play a central role in the strategic planning of modern farmers.” n