Border Spreading Calculator

Successful fertiliser spreading

Discover the additional revenue generated with the AMAZONE border spreading calculator

Amazone offers various technical solutions and services for optimising the adjustment of fertiliser spreaders. Accurate, tailored fertiliser application plays a critical role in reducing costs and protecting the environment. 

Boundary spreading has a long tradition at Amazone.

Amazone developed the border spreading disc as early as 1980. The yield potential of the field boundary area was apparent even then.

The border spreading system provided an improved lateral distribution of fertiliser from the headland tramline to the field boundary combined with a reduction in the amount of fertiliser spread beyond the field boundary. Today, the border spreading systems from Amazone are not only precise, but are also convenient and flexible. For example, the user can not only decide between normal and border spreading without having to stop or climb down from the tractor but can comfortably select the various border spreading options from the cab. Here Amazone offers its customers the possibility of choosing between side, border and water course spreading depending on the sensitivity of field boundary area. 

Border Spreading Calculator
Open the Border Spreading Calculator

The ability to select the appropriate technique from the cab means that you can always change over to the correct setting for your field boundary area scenario:

• e.g. if your field is adjacent to a field with similar crop, you can use side spreading to apply a full 100 percent of your application rate right up to the field boundary. This means that the focus is just on yield.
• If there is a road or a cycle route along the field edge, you can easily switch to border spreading from the cab, and the maximum throwing distance is reduced to the distance to the field boundary. You thereby prevent fertiliser from being thrown over the boundary onto cycle routes and roads.
• If streams, ditches, open bodies of water or fields under organic farming adjoin your field, you can easily switch to water course spreading to maintain a distance to your field boundary. You comply with the Fertiliser Directive, protect the environment and obtain high yields in the boundary area of your field at the same time. 

All Amazone boundary spreading devices have been proven in practice and conform to the regulations and requirements of the current Fertiliser Directive. 

We have tested our AutoTS border spreading system in trials lasting several years. In this respect, we created artificial field boundaries in the centre of fields in large-scale trials, in order to minimise the effect of the margins such as shading, under-fertilisation stretching over several years or competition for water resources from hedgerows and trees.

We used the AutoTS system fitted to a ZA-TS and ZG-TS in the trials and compared these with conventional border spreading procedures in accordance with current practice and combined the crop from the trial plots. The yields from the outermost metre, the outer 3 metres and the outer 5 metres of the field were measured. The reference yield of the test fields was also recorded, in order to compare the values. 

The yield results showed that there was a significant difference between the various border spreading systems in the trials on the outer 5 metres of the plots. Using conventional border spreading procedures, average yields of approx. 68 percent of the reference yield of the field were obtained in the field boundary area. An average yield of approximately 85 percent of the reference yield was obtained in the field boundary area with AutoTS. The average additional yield with AutoTS is therefore around 17 percent higher compared with conventional systems.

As an example:

A rectangular field 300 m long and 200 m wide has an area (A) of 6 ha. The field perimeter (U) is 1000 m in this case. As already mentioned, there are yield differences between the boundary spreading systems on the first 5 metres (d) from the field boundary. In this example, this field boundary area (A_border) covers an area of 0.49 ha. This corresponds to approximately 8 percent of the total area. Generally speaking, the smaller and more angular the field, the higher the percentage of the field boundary area. 

Depending on the crop, different yields are produced and also generate different profits. If you grow wheat on the example field, have an average reference yield of 10 t/ha and a selling price of 170 €/t, you can achieve a theoretical maximum profit of € 833 in the field boundary area (A_border). 

Using AutoTS, an average yield of about 85 percent of the reference yield can be obtained in the field boundary area (A_border). This corresponds to a profit of approx. € 708 in the field boundary area (A_border).

Conventional border spreading systems achieve an average yield of about 68 percent of the reference yield in the field boundary area (A_border). This corresponds to a profit of around € 566 in the field boundary area (A_border).

Additional earnings, compared with conventional systems, can be generated by means of a modern border spreading system, even on a few hectares. Calculate the benefit yourself!