Lemken - turning over with new technology

At a demo day held recently beside Leinster Farm Machinery in Co Meath, Lemken put on a large show of tillage equipment. Among the machines on show was the company’s Isobus/GPS-controlled plough, the Juwel 8 Turncontrol Pro.

This system allows for the main functions of the plough to be controlled; the turnover angle can be adjusted on the move, the variable width can be adjusted both manually and automatically using gps, the depth of the wheel and the height of the lift arms and top-link length can be adjusted from either the plough’s own control box or through the tractor’s Isobus-compatible controller.

Having seen all of this at work, the main advantages of this technology are that the operator will have little or no reason to leave the cab of the tractor during their day’s work unless they have to replace wearing metal or remove extraneous material such as a big stone that may have jammed.

The system allows the field map to be uploaded to the controller and then the plough can, with a little bit of button pushing, manage its width going across the field so that you arrive at the “far hedge” squarely, leaving you with only the two sets of end headlands to be ploughed.

This is a neat trick but also gives time-saving over having to plough all three headlands as with a standard plough or trying to estimate it manually with a standard variable width plough.

The system also allows for four groups of plough settings to be stored.

This means that when set up, with the push of a button the headland setting or field marking settings can be chosen.

This technology can be brought even further in that different plough settings can be assigned to different fields depending on the soil type.

As standard, the Turncontrol Pro system in the Juwel 8 controls plough rotation and the settings for working angle, width and depth via the hydraulic support wheel. GPS-controlled working width adjustment has also been integrated.

Additional functions such as front furrow width adjustment, packer operation or settings for the Hydromatik overload protection are available as options. Looking at the plough in the field, it looks almost the same as a standard Juwel except for some extra cabling running to sensors that are positioned to get the information required to make the adjustment that either the operator or the GPS is telling the plough to do.

These sensors are all well hidden away from harm and shouldn’t be an issue even with the roughest of operation.

When sitting in the cab of the tractor, adjustments on the Lemken controller are intuitive for anyone who has a history of ploughing and/or operating Lemken machines.

The plough at the open day was working on the Lemken screen but, in theory, with the use of an app from Lemken, the plough should have the same control functions but visible in the tractor’s control screen.

This would simplify the operation and also remove clutter from the cab of the tractor.

Up until recently, this Isobus connectivity has been a bit hit-and-miss but Lemken claims that this plough will link with all of the main tractor manufacturers seamlessly. Before getting to see this technology working first-hand, I would have thought that it was a step too far but having seen it at work, it makes sense if the area to be covered is large enough as the savings of time and the ability to work longer hours will probably balance out the extra financial outlay.

On the same day, Lemken also had a full lineup of its tillage equipment with both Rubin disc cultivators at work on the 9 and the very impressive 12. The Rubin 12 is the heavier-duty version and Lemken claims that it can work at the same depths as its legged machines but give a high quality finish with improved trash incorporation.

There are two rows of discs, each disc measures 736mm. These disks give the ability to work down to tine cultivator depth. The 4m version was on show at the demo day. This requires at least 200hp to pull at the depths that the machine is designed for.

There was also a Karat nine-tined cultivator at work, a standard Isobus plough and a Solitaire 8 and Zirkon 8 combination drill and power-harrow sowing after all the other machines had done their bit. Seeing all of this gear working together was an impressive sight and shows the breadth of machinery that Lemken now supplies to the Irish market.