Krone releases EasyWrap 150 bale wrapper John Deere explores faster seeding tech

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BALING

Krone’s solo bale wrapper features a new ground roller, guide roller and bale turner to make the unit safer and more convenient

Freestyle flow

Krone has released its first ever solo bale wrapper to the Australian market and claims the machine has the world’s fastest single arm wrapping speed.

Boasting a speed of 36 rpm, the EasyWrap 150 runs with fully automatic function from bale pick-up to discharge.

Krone’s assistant product manager Nathan Thomas describes the new product as “versatile” and says it combines several stages of the process into one.

“Be it collecting, wrapping or unloading bales, the new EasyWrap 150 is extremely versatile,” he says.

“The fully automatic 3PL single arm wrapper can be mounted on the front or rear linkage as well as telescopic loaders to suit any operation.

“With its powerful wrapping technology and ability to wrap up to a maximum bale weight of 1,600kg, farmers can rely on the EasyWrap 150 to balance efficiency and safety, while also maintaining maximum silage quality.”

Thomas also says safety and convenience were “top of mind” for Krone when designing the EasyWrap 150.

One feature added by Krone is a ground roller, which means the tractor does not have to lift the wrapper’s entire weight.

“The ground roller makes it much easier for farmers to transport hay bales on slopes and hills – it also means farmers can wrap heavy bales with smaller tractors,” says Thomas. Krone says that the EasyWrap 150 has the world’s fastest single arm wrapping speed

There is also a bale turner to safely place a bale on its end, a guide roller to improve guidance during wrapping and a film roll holder with external keypad to operate from outside the cabin.

Mounting brackets hold up to four extra film rolls, while large bobbins improve bale control and ensure smooth rolling, particularly in sloping fields.

John Deere’s collaboration with the University of Sydney will test its ExactEmerge row units on a 100-hectare cotton field

PLANTING

New technology currently being trialled could see the speed of seeding double

Need for speed

John Deere is testing its ExactEmerge row units, which it hopes will increase planting speeds to 16km/h – double the typical speeds of standard planting.

The manufacturer is testing the speeds as part of a collaboration with the University of Sydney, which will also include third-party validation.

Once fully tested, John Deere hopes ExactEmerge will provide farmers with a quicker alternative while still maintaining accurate singulation, seed population, spacing, applied downforce and uniform depth.

Able to integrate with both new and older planters, the ExactEmerge technology can be used on crops such as cotton, sorghum, sunflower and summer grains.

John Deere Australia precision agriculture manager Benji Blevin says the collaboration with the university’s Institute of Agriculture will highlight the technology’s performance and its suitability for Australian conditions.

“Growers are typically used to planting at 8km/h but what we want to show is, using ExactEmerge, they can achieve the same accuracy at double the speed,” says Blevin.

“That ability to cover twice as many hectares as a traditional planter in the same amount of time has the potential to significantly shift the goal posts during the planting season.

“When you can plant at 16km/h with the confidence that you’re not compromising seed placement, you are effectively increasing the optimum planting window.

“That is important because your rate of loss accelerates greatly after the optimum window has passed, but with a high-speed planter, you can avoid missing that optimal planting window. This makes an enormous contribution to a farmer’s chance of achieving the highest crop yield possible.”

The technology has been demonstrated at the University of Sydney’s Llara property, outside Narrabri in northwest NSW, where the 1850-hectare farm is used to produce dryland

L-R: John Deere product specialist Anton Kowalenko, John Deere precision agriculture manager Benji Blevin and University of Sydney director of northern agriculture associate professor Guy Roth

wheat, canola, chickpeas, faba beans and dryland cotton alongside cattle.

Results of that demonstration, which tested the ExactEmerge system on cotton grown in a large-scale 100-hecatre area, are still being finalised, but University of Sydney director for northern agriculture Guy Roth says the expected results look promising.

“Growing crops is a combination of having good engineering, good agronomy and getting the timing right,” says Roth.

“In this validation, John Deere provided the technology and we brought academic rigour to the agronomy and soil science, so it was the perfect opportunity to collaborate and conduct this large-scale validation study.

“Using ExactEmerge, we were able to get a very good, even plant stand across all the treatments and soil types which is very important when planting cotton.”