Autumn 2023 EN

ENGLISH ISSUE
BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023
Accumulated wheat after no-till sowing into a harvested maize field.
On the day of sowing, a knife roller ran at the front of the tractor to
control the maize borer.
The mulch layer of the previous crop, winter wheat, can be seen under
the rapeseed plants, which are already well developed by mid-October.
Direct seeding machine enables
new sowing variants
The technical details and the results of the demonstration
impressed the farm manager. At the turn of
2018/19, the agricultural company ordered a Novag T-
ForcePlus 650 with a working width of 6 meters and 24
T-SlotPlus seeding units with a row spacing
of 25 cm, for a price of 180,000 euros
at that time. For a row spacing of
50 cm, every second plow unit is
deactivated, and for a spacing
of 75 cm, two adjacent units
are turned off.
The 12-ton heavy Novag is
pulled by a 370 horsepower
John Deere 8370 R. During
no-till seeding of cereals into
corn stubble, a front disc roller
is operated on this tractor. It
bends, crushes, and shreds the
stumps of harvested corn plants to
prevent overwintering of the corn borer.
After the silage corn harvest, the field is
reseeded in a single operation.
The thickness of the organic matter layer practically has
no effect on the pressure gradually exerted on the seeding
units and, consequently, on the cutting disc located
“Once you start
no-till farming and
immerse yourself in the
different sowing variations, you
want to keep trying more”
Christian Rohne
6 cm below the seeding blades. This has encouraged
Rohne to experiment and try the option of dividing the
5,400-liter capacity of the seeding machine’s hopper
into up to four individual tanks for seed and fertilizer.
Both can be placed in the soil using a hydraulic dosing
system through the two individually height-adjustable
angled blades (T-SlotPlus seeding units) on
each of the 12 units of the front and rear
seeding rails. This allows for simultaneous
application of two different
crops, as well as fertilizer
and slug pellets. Particularly
in no-till farming systems,
targeted starter fertilization
prevents nitrogen deficiency
during the early growth stages.
Reason: The conversion
of organic substances into
plant-available nutrients takes
time, especially at low temperatures
in spring.
“Once you start no-till farming and immerse
yourself in the different sowing variations,
you want to keep trying more,” says Rohne. As
an example, he mentions intercropping field beans,
peas, and lupins with rapeseed, as well as the introducing
sunflower crops, which have become quite profit-
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