1 June 2015, 12:47
The university of Hohenheim in Stuttgart is running test series at the moment which aim to compare camera guided systems and RTK-guided systems in row crops. Where are the advantages and disadvantages of the systems, which working speeds can be reached with which equipment.
We put the CHOPSTAR row hoe with the automatic steering system ROW-GUARD at the disposal of the university. The test take place in the cultures corn, soya and sugar beet.
The test shall also show, how good the camera system ROW-GUARD is working at night. Besides a longer possible working time per day, one advantage of being able to work at night is, that if the weather conditions are unstable (for example rain at the next day) the hoeing can be finished in time and especially in the right leaf stage.
The tests are in process now , so would like to show you an interim report about the present results. Corn and soya are just about to germinate, therefore the tests were made in sugar beet. The tests took place under extreme conditions, for example in 40-60 % mustard mulch.
The ROW-GUARD detected the young plants already 7-10 days after germinating and the first hoeing could be done. At this moment, the sugar beets were at the end of their cotyledon leaf stage and produced the first real leafs. Deflector discs were used because of the high mustard mulch layer, they were able to cut the mustard straw very good. Deflector plates should not be used because the plates cannot cut the straw. The young plants could be caught between the plates and the straw and could then be pulled out. The working speed at this first hoeing was 4-5 km/h.
The second test was made with different hoeing elements (finger-hoes, torsion-hoes,...) for making a weed control in the row. In this leaf stage (4-6 leafs) weed control in the row was easier with the finger elements. For an effective control it is important, that the weed is in the cotyledon leaf stage. In the 4-6 leaf stage the working speed with “intra-row” elements should be below 10 km/h.
Using the ROW-GUARD at night was no problem. The variant with xenon lights was tested after 11:00 pm. The camera system did not have any problems at all and hoeing was very easily possible.
The third hoeing, this time at 1:00 am, was a great success. The camera could detect the plant rows without any problems and the working speed was up to 15 km/h.
The test will, of course, continue. We will keep you informed about further results, also in the other cultures soya and corn.
Source: Einböck GmbH & Co KG