Sugar beet: harvesting and picking up

We are going to speak about another crop which is not planted in our area: sugar beet. Even today, we can remember how some farmers worked the sugar beet about 20 years ago when, in general, this crop was profitable in Spain. We spent a really interesting day visiting a company in Íscar (Valladolid) which works this crop.

This company owns two tractors to take out and clean the sugar beet. The Fendt 718 as you can see in our pictures and a Valtra (it was not working that day). As workers told us, the Valtra works better than Fendt in this job because their Valtra tractor has a powershift gearbox and it is more advisable than Vario and TMS system... of course, Fendt is more comfortable. The tractor has a harvesting tool of 6 rows that is equipped with a hydraulic system to modify its position on hills.

The ​​Gilles RB410T Automat​ ​harvesters has a tank capacity of 20 tons in order to work a long time without being downloaded. They can harvest a lot of hectares per day (the working speed is about 9 km/h) and the harvesting price is 300€/ha... farmers said this harvesting system is profitable now.

Versión en español.

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Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

Before spring, compacting soil

Another common job, in these days and once the fertilizer is spread, is to compact the soil for cereals and pulse vegetables, this task is performed using a roller. Our friend Diego sent again some pictures about his compacting tasks. This job is carried out to take out stones in order to avoid potential problems in harvesting time.

As you can see in his pictures, he owns a fantastic Razol RVH-Toro cast-iron rings roller of 8m working width. We are surprised to see as Diego works with this type of roller when the crop is grown. As Diego said us, the crop doesn't suffer any problem (the working speed is about 10.5km/h if there aren't stones and 8km/h when the field has stones), but in our area, all farmers only uses this type of roller after sowing. Now, we always use a flat roller.

This cast-iron rings roller has 3 elements which are foldered at a distance of 2,5m for transport position. The lateral elements are pendular so as allow a good distribution for the weight and the good adaptation to the unevenness of the ground. An easy hydraulic folding system to change transport/working position, make this type of folding system very attractive for these tools. The Fendt 818 works pretty fine because the minimum required power is only of 80HP.

We recommend to visit Demoagro farm fair, where you will be able to test rollers with similar features.

Versión en español.

Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)

For a precise fertilize, Amazone

Our friend Diego Gala (who is from Escalona del Prado - Segovia) sent us a few pictures about his fertilizer tasks. He sent us some pictures when he was sowing with his new Claydon seed drill. Some followers asked us about his crops, so you can see diego's crops in this post.

As Diego told us, he used the 22-12-10 fertilizer and the dose was of 350kg/ha. The spreader is an Amazone ZA-M 3001 Profis hydro which allows him to work at 12 km/h without problems and the working width is of 36 meters!! As he ​said when we spoke him​,​ the spreader is fantastic (we have another Amazone spreader and they work really very fine). The AMATRON 3 computer manages completely the machine (​​through a hydraulic drive), it can vary the fertilizer amount... it depends on working speed (spreading vanes are set manually according to the fertilizer type). When he is working on the boundary, the external spreading disc works at less revolutions than the internal spreading disc to throw fertilizer nearer. Its ​h​opper has a capacity of 3,000 litters (payload of up to 3​,​100 kg), so he can work large fields without loading it again.

Versión en español.

Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)