Review: Amazone single-disc coulters offers top-class accuracy

Compact disc harrow and drill combinations have been all the rage in tillage circles in recent years, largely thanks to the influence of TAMS Tillage Capital Investment Scheme grant aid.

Tillage farmers looking to avail of TAMS 3 funding to upgrade drills should by now be aware that the implement the drill is mounted on must be minimum disturbance (non-PTO powered), and thus cannot be the traditional power harrow setup we have become accustomed to in recent decades.

Initially, there were mixed reviews, with many who availed of the grant on a new disc harrow and drill, also often buying a new power harrow, just to have the flexibility and the option was a ‘get-out-of-jail-free-card’ in tougher weather windows. Keen to showcase the potential of these machines, Farmhand gave the Irish Farmers Journal the opportunity to put the popular Amazone Centeya Special 3m drill – mounted on a compact disc harrow – through its paces.

The drill overview

The Centeya is Amazone’s trusty one-pass pneumatic combination drill offering. Both the Super and Special versions come as grain-only or in a grain and fertiliser combo. The pneumatic seed drill can be optionally combined with three different specifications of power harrows, or the CombiDisc mounted compact disc harrow as we tried out.

It also comes with four choices of various packer rollers. The mounted seed drills are available in working widths of 3m, 3.5m and 4m. The Special variant we tried out comes with hopper capacities of 1,000l or 1,500l. The 1,500l comes with the option of a twin-chamber hopper, which can be divided in a ratio of 70:30.

In terms of coulters, it’s available in two variants, either with the RoTeC pro single disc coulter or the TwinTeC double disc coulter setup. The machine we tested had the single disc coulters.

Metering

The Centeya Special features Amazone’s own proven metering system. It comes as standard with an electric metering drive and is controlled by the manufacturer’s own 4.7” AmaDrill 2 terminal or through any other IsoBus terminal. In conjunction with the electric drive, the calibration process is automated.

On the machine we tried out, the tractor wasn’t IsoBus, so we used the AmaDrill 2 terminal. The simplicity of the terminal was impressive and straightforward to use. After 10 minutes scrolling through it, you would easily get to grips with it. I would highly rate the usability and simplicity of the company’s own IsoBus terminal.

Seed distribution

The seed is fed from the hopper to the distributor head via an air stream that passes up the high-rise tube. Amazone claims that its large-diameter distributor head guarantees precise lateral distribution of the seed.

When setting up the drill, we set the desired rate on the terminal. We then took a sample from the metering device using the fold out bucket, weighed it and inputted the results into the screen on the side of the drill. We found the drill to be very easy to calibrate, and the few times that we did so, it was bang-on accurate when we took the second measurement. You would have it calibrated in a matter of minutes.

The segmented distributor head is positioned behind the seed hopper directly above the coulters. The optional electric half-side shut-off enables the machine to be manually (via the terminal) or automatically (via GPS) switched off to reduce over-laps on the headland etc.

With the aid of the tramline shut-offs, up to six seed rows per side can be switched off. Amazone says that the correspondingly wide tramline wheel tracks are suitable for tyre widths up to 1,050mm on a 15cm row spacing, or 875mm on a 12.5cm row spacing.

RoTeC coulters

The machine we tried out was fitted with the RoTeC single-disc coulters. Amazone has said it designed the RoTeC coulters to be maintenance-free and work reliably, even where large amounts of straw and plant residues prevail.

The coulters are mounted on rubber elements for shock absorption. The sowing disc and furrow former create the seed furrow profile. Amazone uses a 320mm sowing disc made from boron, which rides on a working angle of 7°.

One advantage of the RoTeC coulter that Amazone pushes is that there is no connection between depth control and the reconsolidation system. This means that the coulter is raised only once when passing a stone. It also means the coulter and harrow pressure can be adjusted independently of each other. The sowing depth on the RoTeC coulters is guided by either the Control 10 depth guidance disc with its 10mm wide contact area or the Control 25 depth guidance roller with its 25mm wide contact area mounted directly on the coulter. Amazone says these guides are also designed to prevent soil from sticking to the sowing disc, alongside ensuring the preselected sowing depth is maintained.

Depth adjustment

The basic setting of the sowing depth takes place without tools and in four levels directly on the coulter. The individual coulter pressure can be adjusted from 0 to 35kg, while row spacings of 12.5cm or 15cm can be chosen.

Amazone recommends the single-disc coulter for wet and cohesive soil types, as they say it has a high level of self-cleaning through the depth guidance roller. When we tried out the machine, conditions were on the tougher side, with some ground OK to drill, and another piece pushing the boundary. The coulters did not clog once, and even as a shower of rain came just as we were close to finishing up, the drill sowed away perfectly, with very good seed placement. However, as they say, the proof is in the pudding, and crop emergence was exemplary, and could not be faulted whatsoever. We would like the addition of coulter blockage sensors, just to be on the safe side.

Keeping things simple

Amazone has designed a universal setting tool for the majority of drill adjustments.

With it, it’s possible to adjust the bout markers, coulter pressure, the pre-emergence marker, the following harrow, the height adjustment of the levelling board (power harrow machine), adjust the side plates and open the protective sieve. It’s a simple piece of engineering, but a nice touch. In the space of time we had the drill, we did not need to remove the disc harrow from underneath. However, to switch between the disc and power harrow or vice versa, Amazone has incorporated a QuickLink quick-release coupling system on the Centaya combination. Speaking to one contractor who has the drill two years now, he explained that you would change between the two in 20-30 minutes.

It’s attached through three coupling points, which allow tool-free coupling and uncoupling. One comment I will make, is that the hopper appeared to have a centre of gravity close to the tractor, which was a gift on heavy ground.

We were pleasantly surprised with the setup, its capability and its output capacity. From the get go, the disc and drill combination allowed to get through more ground, while burning less diesel in doing so in comparison to a conventional power harrow one-pass system.

We ran the combination on lighter ground which had been in corn for two years and was just ploughed – and also in tough ley ground – which had been ploughed and received one run of a heavy disc harrow in front. In the first, the combo flew it, proving to be absolutely ideal, and leaving a very nice finish. In the latter, the conditions were tough and far from ideal. It was here where the drill surprised us most. Despite some undulating conditions, the drill maintained seeding depth, while sowing at speed in a race against the rain.

The radar system offered extremely accurate metering. The speed at which we were able to get through work, without compromising on the quality of the work was impressive. We sowed most of the trial work at forward speeds of 12-18km/h, in west of Ireland ground that would be questionable by many tillage enthusiasts in the east.

We found the combo to be very good at dealing with stones. Although there was no big flush of stones, whatever it met, it did so in its stride and they flowed through the machine. Obviously, the disc combination also brings about the advantage of a low power requirement. We were drilling away at around 1,500rpm in a Fendt 720, at our ease. Users will tell you that you do want the clay a lot drier for the disc harrow to work effectively, and that the system can save at least five to 10 litres of fuel per hour, while increasing output in the region of 20-30%. We did find that in wetter conditions, where a power harrow works, it can be challenging for the disc.

In conclusion, we were very impressed with the Centeya Special disc harrow and drill combination, which did exceed our expectations. As a contractor or grain grower, you will always have to keep a difficult winter sowing campaign, heavier soils and wetter clay at the back of your mind, so this setup won’t rule out the use of a power harrow going forward, but we feel that for the majority of straightforward work, the disc combination is the direction of travel.

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