It is becoming increasingly difficult to operate successfully as a farmer or contractor: climate change, water scarcity, the cost of inputs, a shortage of skilled labour and strict environmental protection requirements – here, up to date agricultural planning, including efficient agricultural machinery, is very important in order to produce affordable food of good quantity and quality despite all the adversities.

Ever tighter time windows for sowing require higher outputs, the optimum operational combinations and the maximum precision in order to place the seed at exactly the right depth and at the ideal time. This ensures uniform and gapless plant emergence - especially in single-seed sowing such as maize, sunflowers, oilseed rape and other crops. 

Nevertheless: extreme temperatures and drought can always threaten the crop and reduce potential yields. This can be remedied by making better use of the subsoil by encouraging the young roots to grow deeper through appropriate under-root fertilisation. Precise placement of fertiliser in the correct horizon below or next to the seed also saves on fertiliser usage, increasing and prolonging nutrient availability, as the higher soil moisture content allows better, long-term nutrient mobilisation, especially with phosphate fertilisers. Tight nutrient balances can also be maintained, whilst, at the same time, increasing yield.

The efficient and yield-increasing use of finite resources at the ideal time is the aim of precision seeding on large farms and by contractors. And this is precisely why AMAZONE has developed the Precea-TCC trailed precision air seeder in working widths of 6, 9 and 12 m: Precea 6000, 9000 and 12000-TCC.

1. The large hopper capacity for seed and fertiliser, combined with the large working width, ensures high work rates and short non-productive times for filling and transport.
2. Telescopic axle for flexible track management allows soil-friendly operation in the field.
3. Folding coulter system for safe road transport and short set-up times.
4. Precise under-root fertilisation with FerTeC twin HD double disc fertiliser coulters for good root and seedling development in the growing crop.
5. PreTeC mulch seed coulter for precise, even sowing with exact singling, intelligent depth control, patented catcher roller with press roller and gentle reconsolidation.
6. Working widths from 6 to 12 m, with row spacings of 45 to 80 cm enable high work rates at speeds of up to 15 km/h for optimum use of operational resources.

More water for seed and fertiliser 

The singled seeds pass through the propulsion channel into the pre-formed seed furrow, where it is reliably placed at the correct depth by the catcher roller with press wheel. The trailing V-Press rollers close the furrow and firm the soil for optimum seed/soil contact and reconsolidation. Soil closure is complete - both the seeds and under-root fertilisation have access to the groundwater. Perfect emergence conditions with the Precea. Tight operating windows with optimal sowing conditions can be utilised profitably.

The maximum theoretical yield potential of an individual plant is defined by the genetics of the seed. The actual yield potential, in turn, is determined by a variety of other factors and parameters and this, ultimately, is gradually reduced during the plant's life cycle through abiotic and biotic stress factors. What remains in terms of potential is the actual yield of the crop that can be harvested.

In order to increase yields stress factors that can inhibit growth thus must be reduced - as comprehensively and as early as possible.

The first steps are taken by ensuring better sowing: the first step is sowing at the correct time and in the best possible climatic conditions. Secondly, the precise placement of the seed at the 
right depth in the soil is essential to optimise the physiological developmental of the seedling. Thirdly, optimum supply of water to the seedling is very important - and therefore good reconsolidation and access to water-bearing soil layers. Furthermore, the availability of nutrients through precise under-root fertilisation is important to enable the young roots to grow, especially at depth - in order to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in it in the deeper subsoil, even during dry periods.

The high output, high precision, good reconsolidation and adapted fertilisation of the Precea do all of this - ensuring good yields and high efficiency.