NOMINEE MANFRED HUR ▶▶▶TZ
Manfred Hurtz stopped ploughing a long time ago and currently uses a cultivator and an Amazone disc harrow for soil preparation.
combination with VRA fertilising, it led to more uniform crops, both quality wise and quantity wise. The result of more uniform (ripening) ce- reals is easier combine harvesting and less costs of post-harvest treatments like drying.” It brought him several medals for the best quali- ty malting barley in his area and state. His ex- perience with the N-sensor and his affinity
Manfred still likes to use skills learned while studying to be a tool maker to adapt machines, like with these additional side discs.
with electronics still come in handy. Not only at his own farm, but also in helping out other N-sensor users in Germany and neighbouring country Luxemburg.
Autopilots help save environment In 2010, Mr Hurtz bought a Trimble autopilot with RTK-precision to guide his Claas Lexion
8 questions to the Top 10 nominee
1) Who are you? I’m Manfred Hurtz 2) When did you first start with precision farming? With a precision herbicide spraying project in 2003 3) What is your main motivation to use the technology? Limit environmental impact, decrease inputs and protect drinking water 4) What are the most interesting things you’ve learned? Being more efficient with inputs and grow better crops 5) What are your main tips for precision technology starters? Start for instance with satellite imagery for fertiliser application 6) What is your main tip for experienced users? Refine, relook at your working widths and application rates 7) What went wrong? Working with online systems mostly results in fertiliser and chemi- cal residues 8) What will be your next step(s)? Reducing the section width of my spreader and sprayer
10 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 24 May 2019
540 combine and his two Fendt tractors. “I’ve learned that using an autopilot, especially on fallow ground, helps me save time, money and inputs. The technology helps prevent unwant- ed overlap and it initially saved me one pass / track per field. Because, without autopilot and GPS section control, you want to be sure and always have more overlap between tracks than necessary. Besides, on headlands you always switch on the sprayer too early and off too late. Eliminating that extra unnecessary pass and overlap saves time, fuel, fertiliser and chemi- cals and lowers my CO2
-footprint and environ-
mental impact.” When his neighbour said that he always fell 500 litres short of crop protec- tion liquid when spraying a field, Mr Hurtz told him that he could have sufficient when using autopilot. “So, one day, I sprayed his field with my sprayer. He got very nervous on headlands when the sprayer did not switch on or off at the point he would manually. We ended up having a surplus of 40 litres on the same field where he always fell 500 litres short. The 540 li- tres were saved by the autopilot and section GPS control.”
Shifting to satellite imagery His opposition to online technology, measur- ing and applying fertiliser / chemicals in the same pass, has recently led to preferring satel- lite imagery above crop sensors. “I’m currently in a project together with Kleffmann Group and Kverneland Group to use biomass satellite imagery for fertilising and grow stop regula- tion. The idea is that I can get accurate satellite images every three days from the new Sentinel satellites. The My Data Plant software then
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