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growth days. In addition, the soil’s moisture condition is very important. It determines the load-bearing capacity. Especially for large com- panies with so-called all-in-one combinations of more than 20 tons, this is critical. Because of that, planning the most efficient way of plant- ing is especially important. A growing group of arable farming companies in the Netherlands and Belgium grow more than 100 hectares of potatoes, sometimes several hundreds.
22 hectares in less than three days To be clear, for smaller farms this is less of an issue. Last week for example, I heard about a company led by two brothers. Well-equipped as they are, they can plant their 22 hectares of potatoes in less than three days. “If we try real- ly heard, we can even do it in two,” they said. Well, for this kind of company, fine-tuning the planting logistics and routing is not that nec- essary. However, gaining minutes many times can make the difference between getting things done in time or failing to do so.
Planting window Let’s just assume that the mechanisation trend for planting (or all cultivation) is characterised by wanting to increase the work performance (hectares/man-hours). The success rate is de- termined by the combination of the machine’s weight (for soil compaction) and timeliness. This is a worldwide issue. HWodka draws several conclusions after its
Especially at large companies with so-called all-in-one combinations of more than 20 tons, the soil’s load-bearing capacity is critical.
research on logistics: • To make more and better use of the limited number of workable days, the hectare out- put of the planting combination needs to in- crease. The current trend is to combine tasks in one go. Sometimes, farmers focus so much on the hectare output, that they plan the planting window full from front to end. This increases the risk of planting in less opti- mal conditions, when circumstances reduce the number of workable days.
• Turning and filling often takes up more time than you realise. Steps can be made by auto- mation, for example when an operator can operate the dumper combination from a dis- tance to fill the planter. HWodka also has a field robot in mind that can take care of
preparing the plant bed. When this is sepa- rated from the planting itself, the planter can drive faster. This requires excellent logistic planning however.
• The additional information from Gaos, the cultivated area and the cultivation times, is especially useful when working on ‘irregular’ plots. Moreover, if you know the exact plant- ing distance and the 1.000 tuber weight, you can calculate even more precisely how much seed potatoes are needed and whether or not the bunker is large enough to make one or more whole rounds.
HWodka’s chairman adds that strict planning beforehand is very important for the most effi- cient use of eventually autonomous machines: robots.
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▶ FUTURE FARMING | 24 May 2019
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PHOTO: ROEL DIJKSTRA
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