Van-Control 2.0
Zunhammer manure sensor new on the Dutch market
The German fertilizer specialist Zunhammer has been working on an NIR sensor since 2005. The holy grail of slurry application. Importer Rosier Greidanus from Winsum, Friesland, will supply the sensor technology in the Benelux from this year.
Zunhammer, from Traunreut in Bavaria, is a great unknown in the Netherlands, but one of the largest fertilizer technology producers in its home country of Germany. In 2005, it started developing an NIR sensor in collaboration with a German university. The current Van-Control 2015 has been available since 2.0, which is now also available in the Benelux. It has now gained the necessary practical experience with sensor technology.
The infrared sensor technology measures nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, ammonium and the dry matter content in various liquid fertilizers. Calibration lines are available for this. The sensor measures the levels every second and calculates an average. Then the delivery is varied, depending on the values. The pump control has been patented by Zunhammer. The values are saved and can be exported to the office or printed out in the cabin. The manufacturer uses the CCI Isobus terminal to be able to fertilize on the basis of task maps.
Fertilization in a targeted manner at the levels of nitrogen and phosphate minimizes yield differences in the (cereal) crop. This requires a variable pump control to be able to fertilize evenly. The manufacturer has conducted studies in wheat in Germany. Different types of manure were used with the aim of ultimately applying 120 kilos of nitrogen per hectare. The results show that the differences per fertilizer type are large. For example, 44,5 cubic meters per hectare was needed for sow manure to achieve the desired amount of nitrogen, and only 26 cubic meters for slurry from pigs for fattening.
Zunhammer supplies the technology on their own slurry tanks, self-propelled trailers with a superstructure (Claas Xerion, Holmer Terra Variant), mobile pump stations, but also on drag hose combinations. Importer RosierGreidanus from Winsum, Friesland, has now sold about twenty Zunhammer manure tanks in our country.
Niels van der Boom
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