Farmhand has been the exclusive Irish importer for Amazone machinery since 1968.
“Amazone has always been a leading manufacturer of farming implements for tillage. The brand is synonymous with quality and precision,” claimed Stephen Scrivener, sales director for Farmhand.
Paudie Ahearn, a tillage farmer from Grange, Clonmel, in Co. Tipperary, farms with his brother Liam and father Liam senior.
“It’s 35 years since we set our own corn,” explains Paudie. “We always had contractors in before.”
“Two years ago we purchased a ZA-V fertiliser spreader so when myself and my brother decided we would drill our own corn we found no reason why not to go with Amazone again, between all their technology and marrying both our major components we found it worked very well with our system,” explains Paudie.
The Cirrus trailed seed drill combination is a highly efficient pneumatic seed drill available in working widths of 3m to 6m and hopper sizes of 3,000L to 4,000L.
Due to their flexibility and different conveying system concepts, the Cirrus models offer the right solution for any farm, from small, compact sowing combinations to large-scale seed drills.
“As you can see it is very high but it is easy to load and unload from our own MF tractor that we have here, as well so loading and unloading is not a big deal,” explains Paudie.
Maximum effectiveness – seedbed preparation and sowing in one pass
“We went for the trailed because it suited our horsepower and also the speed of the drilling we felt was faster and it would get through the land an awful lot quicker,” explains Paudie.
“For our soil type here it also suits and it is lovely on the discs rather than the tines. So we went for the disc version and it brings up a lovely puffy seed bed in front of the coulters.”
The trailed seed drill combination with two-row disc element shows its advantages. The disc element loosens, crumbles and levels the seedbed depending on the type of discs chosen immediately ahead of the seed placement.
The working depth of the disc element can be adjusted on the move via a series of holes, the end discs can be adjusted individually to ensure a level finish between bouts.
The Cirrus is also available without a disc element to provide a high output solo drill. With all the technical benefits of the basic seed drill, the Cirrus without disc segment is a cost-effective alternative for solo sowing but still maintains the pre-drilling reconsolidation. An optional Crushboard can also be added to this specification.
“It also has great paddles in front and the track eradicators,” explains Paudie, when operating on compaction sensitive soils, and at a reduced working depth, the optional tractor wheel mark eradicators make sense.
These loosen the compacted tracks behind the tractor tyres. The position of the wheel mark eradicators can be set horizontally and vertically. The special kinematics of the eradicator provides a constant spring force across the entire area of deflection. The wedge shares safely loosen yet, however, do not bring stones to the surface.
Accurate metering drive
The metering system on the Amazone Cirrus is suitable for all seeds and sowing rates from 1.5 to 400kg/ha. Over-sized metering cassettes produce a low peripheral speed protecting the seed from damage.
Conversion from fine seeds to normal seeds is done in seconds by exchanging the metering cassettes. They can even be changed when the seed hopper is full.
A full set of metering cassettes are supplied as standard which cover up to 95% of all seeds.
More control, more efficient
The segmented distributor head provides huge flexibility for the pneumatic seed drill. With immediate effect, asymmetrical tramlines can be carried out without an undesirable seed rate reduction on the other half of the machine.
The segmented distribution head facilitates either manual or optional electric half-side shut-off. The half-side shut-off is located directly in the distribution head. In combination with Section Control or the GPS-Switch automated part-width section control by Amazone, the use of the half-side shut-off can lead to considerable savings, as overlaps and unsown areas are avoided.
With the aid of the tramline shut-offs, in total up to six seed rows per side (2X4 standard) can be switched off. Appropriately wider tramlines are suitable for the use of crop-care tractors. In this way, Amazone takes into account the demands of wider and wider tyres on the crop husbandry tractor. Whilst shut off when tramlining, the seed rate is automatically reduced.
Matrix tyres – strip-wise reconsolidation for optimum growth conditions
“Also on this drill they have the matrix tyres which are a step above other tyres that are on the market which was of a great benefit reduces the sticky, clammy, picking up any soil and that was a big benefit to us,” explains Paudie.
The core purpose of the Matrix tyres is reconsolidation in strips. The soil conditions created by these tyres provide optimal growth conditions for all plants under all conditions.
AmaPad 2 – An extremely convenient way of controlling agricultural machinery
“So inside in the cab we selected the AmaPad, we got it with our ZA-V spreader when we got it,” explains Paudie.
“We found this is an extremely good feature because on the AmaPad I can have the GPS up on it, my drill up on it and my sensors up on it and all them features I can look at all at the one time.”
A whole new level of control and monitoring: With AmaPad 2, Amazone offers an especially high-performance operator terminal.
The 12.1″ multi-touch colour display is easy to use and can fulfil even the highest demands of Precision Farming. AmaPad 2 is operated solely via touch.
With the practical “MiniView concept” applications which aren’t being actively operated at that moment but need to be monitored are still clearly displayed at the side. When needed these can be enlarged using “a finger swipe”.
“The AmaPad then I find it very easy with the touch screen is that if I’m flicking between the machine all I have to do is rub my finger across the screen and it’ll increase the size of what I’m looking for at that moment in time and increases my efficiency throughout the process of drilling,” explains Paudie.
“I also included the joystick control which makes features very easily at my fingertips rather than even having to go up to the touch screen that the AmaPad has.”
Seed tube monitoring
“We also included the sensors you’d see them there on the back, so we have the sensors for each of the coulters to tell us when they are blocked,” explains Paudie.
“This is a big benefit, from the cab I can see the 18 numbered green lights to say that all my coulters are working perfectly and the seed is being put out at the correct rate that I have asked for it to be put out.”
An additional useful assistance system is the optional seed tube monitoring which immediately detects blockages at the coulter and in the seed pipe. Directly behind the distributor head, sensors check the seed flow inside the seed tubes.
The system automatically detects when the drill is tramlining. Especially during long working days, the monitoring is an elegant possibility to check the performance.
Dealer support
“When buying our ZA-V fertiliser spreader we ended up with an extremely good relationship with Michael Eardly down in Kilkenny, so when myself and my brother decided we were going to go and drill the corn our own way the natural progression for us with Amazone was to deal with Michael,” explains Paudie.
“Michael and his team, how good they are we felt they were great ambassadors for the brand and provided great after service care for us.”
For more information on the Amazone Cirrus drill or to find your local dealer, contact Val McAuley on: 087-244-0893.
