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Presenting the world's largest seed drill

Seed Hawk - world

Väderstad Seed Hawk presented the world’s largest seed drill recently at the Farm Progress Show in Canada. The cart for seed and fertiliser can hold an astounding 46 cubic metres, weighs over 15 tonnes empty and is over 15 metres long. The weight of the hopper is distributed over four tracks in order to minimise soil compaction

“The huge 46 cubic metre cart minimises the time required for refills and increases the efficiency. Despite its enormous size, the cart can be filled in 15 minutes” including both seeds and fertiliser according to Gustav Nilsson, who is responsible for Seed Hawk at Väderstad.

The cart is divided into four compartments of varying sizes: 10 500 litres, 16 800 litres, 16 800 litres and 1400 litres. Wheat is normally kept in the 10 500 litre tank and fertiliser in the 16 800 litre tank.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest hopper on the market. Together with a 25 metre wide direct drill, it is possible to drill up to 61 hectares per fill.  This is based on a seed rate of 120 kg per hectare and a fertiliser rate of 300 kg per hectare”, said one of the founders of Seed Hawk, Brian Dean.

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Field trials carried out Väderstad Seed Hawk have shown that direct drilling can give just as high yields as conventional drilling. The proportion of direct-drilled is relatively small in Sweden, but in Australia for example it is the most commonly used method because soil moisture is very limited there.
 
“In the case of Seed Hawk 1300 we believe that the highest demand will come from markets such as Russia, Canada, the USA and Australia”, said Gustav Nilsson.

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