Amazone: Weltrekord im Pflanzenschutz

Is it possible to cover an area of 1,000 ha with a crop protection application within 24 hours? This question can be now answered with an emphatic Yes: and with a treated area of 1,032 hectares in just 24 hours, the UX 11200 sprayer from Amazone has recently set a new world-record

Converted into an average work rate, the UX 11200 – at 43 ha per hour - also set a second new record for output from today's modern crop protection technology. With its tank capacity of 12,000 l and tandem axle running gear, the UX 11200 is currently the biggest trailed sprayer in the Amazone range and equipped with a 40 m wide Super-L boom and pulled behind a 330 HP Fendt tractor, it meant that during the course of the world-record attempt - and depending on the weather and field conditions - daytime speeds of 13 to 15 km/h and during the night – thanks to the absence of wind and dew formation on the plants – of 17 km/h. The sprayer was filled directly in the field from a 21,000 litre water bowser supplied by the company Annaburger along with a 1000 litre crop protection agent bulk container on the load platform of the towing vehicle, a Mercedes Benz Unimog.

The world-record operation, which was projected to last exactly 24 hours, started on September 3rd, 2014 at 12 o'clock at Golzow farm near the village of Golzow in Brandenburg. The farm covers, in total, an area of 6,490 ha and is representative of European crop protection conditions in practice and thus shows where the UX 11200 can fully demonstrate its strengths.

The actual treatment programme was, following on from harvesting rape the treatment of volunteer rape with glyphosate at an application rate of 100 l/ha of water across 15 different fields. The treatment was carried out with the full agreement of the farm’s crop protection manager. The nozzles utilised were TurboDrop High Speed from Agrotop in different sizes (025, 03, 04). However, during the entire 24 hours, only the 03 nozzles were used.

Due to the variation in stubble length and the emergence of the volunteer rape plants at different heights, the fields proved to be very uneven thus making it especially demanding on the boom guidance system on the sprayer. In addition, work was made even more difficult by pylons and irrigation points in the fields. Therefore, all these obstacles and exclusion zones were stored in the tractor terminal prior to the record attempt to warn the non-local drivers of these areas in good time. Also the tractor was equipped with an automatic steering system which was supplemented by an RTK correction signal via a mobile station. The sprayer was operated via an Amatron 3 in-cab terminal from Amazone, and the automated headland and part-width shut-off via the SectionControl software within the tractor’s terminal.