Sima fair news
Electric drive on existing seed drills
GPS and electronics specialist Ag Leader will be showing an electric drive for precision seed drills that can be retrofitted at Sima in Paris. It wants to control the American market first, but the technology will certainly also be available in Europe.
It is very common in North America to retrofit your seeder to make it up-to-date or adapt it to the needs of your farm. We are not used to that in Europe. Do you want a new model? Then you trade it in. In recent years there has been a trend to drive elements electrically. Not only does that save a lot of sprockets and chains, you can also switch the rows on and off automatically. That's what Ag Leader is all about with SureDrive.
The company places a modest electric motor indirectly on the seed housing. A chain, which runs through a maintenance-free oil bath, eventually drives the element. The system was launched in the US at the end of last year. That is where the company's largest market lies. It now has conversion kits for seed drills from John Deere, Kinze, White (Agco) and Case IH. It is now also working on integration for the European market at Monosem and Matermacc, which was shown at the Sima, a manager said. Ag Leader uses a 'color blind principle' and works with every brand. In this way it also hopes to be able to do business with machine manufacturers ex works.
The big difference between the brands is only in the mounting bracket. It must be exactly right because the drive must be exactly straight on the element. 'A handy contractor or mechanization company can design the brackets themselves,' thinks Rob Ormel of Ag Leader. 'The connection has been made as simple as possible. In principle anyone can do the calibration. For the Dutch market, however, this still happens with the importer Homburg or the dealer.'
1.000
euro
According to Ormel, mounting the electric motors on the potato potato is not possible. They are not powerful enough for that. However, the sowing element of a maize seed drill works fine. Each row switches on or off individually. This not only provides net work, but also saves seed. The same applies to sowing in bends, where mechanical machines normally overdose. The electrical system always has the correct output and therefore the correct distance in the row. It is also possible to vary the driving distance. Task cards are used for this.
Ag Leader already has the system up and running in North America. There it costs $1.000 per element. It is expected that there will also be interest in the system in Europe and the Netherlands, for contractors who want to make their maize seed drills modern again, but do not want to invest in a completely new machine. The selling price here is probably about 1.000 euros. The company does assume that you already have a terminal of theirs in the tractor.
Niels van der Boom
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