Building on Väderstad’s existing 12-row, 16-row and 18-row models but no wider in working width, the TPL 24 is the firm’s first high-speed 24-row precision seeder. Last spring we checked it out in maize
Mighty drills need matching fields to work in. The plains of eastern Germany aren’t short of a hectare or two, so we headed out that way to see what Väderstad’s TPL 24 can do on a commercial holding. It’s fair to say that the operator was chuffed with his new drill: “On beet we easily cover over 90ha in a shift, averaging 12km/hr. And drilling maize we go even quicker — 14-16km/hr.” At that sort of speed and with 450mm row spacing, 150ha can be planted in 10 hours. This calls for substantial horsepower — see later.
The TPL 24 shares a telescopic axle, 5,000-litre rear fertiliser hopper and positive-pressure PowerShoot seed delivery system with its three smaller siblings. The drill’s standard single 600/65 R34 tyres can be replaced by the option of two pairs of 320/90 R42 tyres arranged to run between rows. In the fertiliser department the TPL 24 has the option of a high capacity hopper using twin augers to feed eight Fenix III metering units, four per side, on demand. Väderstad says that even travelling at 16km/hr its set-up will still supply granules at rates from 10kg/ha right up to 350kg/ha.
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