Lemken world seeding record?

['Guest']

I picked up a video at the Agritechinca fair where the tillage company Lemken clams to achive some sort of record in seeding 370 ha in 24 hours.It looks very impressive with 2 big Cat/Claas crawlers and wide tillage implement and a 12 m wide seeder going insanely 25 km/h. (Yeeeeehhhhaaawwwww!!!!!)But just what is the record?My knowledge of the german language is limited but i belive "Mullsaat" to mean "seeding withput previous molboard plowing", not quite no-till.I'm not saying the Lemken crew did not do an impressive job but it seems if a 260hp Fendt puling a 12 m seeder can do it in Germany, then a 400 hp Articulated tractor could do it with a 20 m Airseeder (w twice the seedtank-capacity) on a prarie.For instance: The 900hp tractor BigBud 747-16V is clamed to seed and cultivate 1 acre/minute. That mean it could seed 400 ha in 16.5 hours.One way to look at it though would be not to count the area cultivated and seeded in 24 hours but the total harvested yield of the fields seeded in 24 hours. That way the accomplishment of the Lemken crew and products would be shown more clearly and the prairie monsters would propably not have much of a chance.Still, it was a good job and made for an entertaining video! (Of course my Girlfriend disagrees on the level of entertainment, as I gather most normal people would)Laapa/Johan Buregård

[Laapa]

You know, I remember posting this in the very early days of this board. Never got any reply though so I though I'd try to bring the topic up once more. Seems there would be more people seeing it nowadays.
Still curious what the record was all about.

[Woodbeef]

Ahhhh......Laapa this is not a new twist on one of Lee's tricks for stats now is it? By recycling posts!!!!

Seriously though

I think as you say the harvested amount should be what is rated ,not the actual amount of ground seeded. Like you say at 25kph,how much of the seed actually germinated,and then grew? Anybody can drive like a mad man,but who can go the fastest,cover the most ground and get a harvestable crop is what should be considered as the record!!


Well thank you very much there Laapa,for the condolences!! But did you notice though that I have just as many stars as you do?

[Laapa]

Dear Woodbeef. Congratulations to your now 200+ posts. I feel trying to beat you by such methods would be useless by now.
I am truly interested in this record. And I just scored another post.

[[e-mail]]

OK Johan, lets get realistic here

I was always told that acres/hr is (width (ft) x speed (mph)) / 8.25. Then throw in efficiency into that

So a 70ft Flexicoil air seeder www.flexicoil.com/dryland/tools/7500.htm pulled by a New Holland TJ450 at 6mph at 90% efficieny would do app 45 acres / hr. I figure 90% efficiency = 54 mins/hr seeding. If you have long fields such as the Great Plains, you will be doing that.

Another thing - the tank holds 340 bu. Plant wheat at 2bu/acre = 170 acres between fill, or 3.5 hrs. Say filling up takes 15 mins. That means in 3 3/4 hours, you'll have 157.5 acres planted, and you're filled up again.

Figure 157.5 in 3 3/4 hrs, and do that over 24 hours, and you have 1008 acres planted, or 403 ha. And thats with fill ups, and good sized turns. If you wanted to set world records, you'll be a bit higher then that yet.

Theres a lot of play in these numbers, but you understand the idea of it. Its not that hard to do, and the speed is realistic

[Laapa]

Excellent point Jon. Thank you.
I heard the 1 acre/minute somewhere. I guess it is not realistic averadge in the long run...

[[e-mail]]

Here's an article of a farm that uses this air seeder that I speak of. Its a good little read

www.newholland.com/na/news/nhn/Oct00/V46No7_3.htm

It backs up my figures

[paddyland]

I believe that Lemken tried to break the record for the amount of land cultivated and another for the land drilled. This took part in the end of Sept 2001 in Germany did not hear the final result but if I do hear anythig I will let you know.