Mechanical seed drill Horsch Versa 3 KR
Grain by grain - precisely embedded
Wheat, barley, rapeseed - due to the grain sizes and properties alone, it is not trivial at the technical level to achieve equally good sowing results for all three crops. Horsch has taken on a DLG test with this range with the Versa 3 KR mechanical seed drill.
It would be carrying an owl to Athens to remind you that the success of the crop depends largely on its establishment, i.e. seedbed preparation and sowing. A classic equipment combination for this task is the drill combination of power harrow and seed drill. The Versa 3 KR mechanical seed drill presented for testing is designed precisely for this purpose and is usually mounted on a power harrow. In the test case, this was a Kredo 3 HD, also from Schwandorf. Regardless of whether the soil was ploughed beforehand for reasons of soil hygiene or the subsoil was loosened with a cultivator: With the power harrow, a fine soil structure can be achieved relatively independently of the soil type, ensuring good contact between seed and soil. With the help of a correctly adjusted roller, a uniform working depth is achieved - virtually ideal conditions for sowing as the next work step. In the test, this was carried out by the Versa 3 KR mechanical seed drill with 20 seed coulters over three meters, which corresponds to a row spacing of 15 cm.
Interesting features
A special product feature of the Versa 3 KR is the SmartClip metering system, which, according to the manufacturer, enables a particularly high degree of flexibility with regard to the application of a wide variety of seeds. One fine and one normal seed wheel per seed coulter are attached to the lower part of the seed hopper. By manually opening or closing sliders, the seed is fed into the corresponding metering wheels, whose speed is in turn controlled by an electric motor depending on the forward speed. The seed is deposited in the soil via double disc coulters with a diameter of 35 cm. Pressure rollers ensure good soil contact, while the heavy harrow installed on the test specimen ensures sufficient coverage with fine soil.
All machine settings are made via the so-called control center (Fig. 2). The upper part of the center contains the setting options for the calibration and bottom flaps, and the calibration process, grain placement depth setting and residual quantity removal can be carried out from here. All these operations can be carried out from a central position of the operator outside the machine frame. A calibration bag and a scale are included in the scope of delivery and can be stored in the closed tool box when not in use.
The additional equipment HorschConnect enables new digital applications. For example, selected machine functions such as calibration can be controlled via the MobileControl app. The smartphone is connected to the machine's own local WLAN and replaces the terminal. At the same time, HorschConnect Telematics enables transparent viewing and use of all machine data via the cloud. Important parameters such as the application rate, machine performance (hour meter or hectare output) or position-related error messages from the machine are visualized here. Because a field-related evaluation is also possible after importing field boundaries, there is no need for time-consuming manual documentation.
Dual test
As is usual for the individual criterion “working quality” for seed drills, the DLG test of the Horsch Versa 3 KR essentially comprised a laboratory test with a statically positioned machine to determine the metering and lateral distribution accuracy as well as a field test with scoring of the field emergence with at least wheat and rapeseed and the determination of the longitudinal plant distribution.
In the laboratory test, the Horsch Versa 3 KR achieved a result of “very good” according to the DLG evaluation grid in terms of metering accuracy for all three tested seed types. The metering accuracy of the seed drill for wheat only dropped slightly on the test stand with a strong forward or backward tilt of 20 % and was rated “good” according to the DLG evaluation grid. In all cross-distribution tests with wheat, barley and rapeseed, the coefficient of variation achieved was also exclusively rated as “very good”.
The field test with winter oilseed rape was carried out on sandy loam with wheat as the previous crop and straw. After a stubble fall with a working depth of 10 cm, the area was cultivated to a depth of 25 cm with a cultivator before sowing. During sowing, the deposited rape seeds were randomly exposed and the depth of deposition measured. This was between one and two centimeters. All the oilseed rape seeds sown were covered with sufficient soil, although the heavy harrow was not used due to the soil conditions. In this test, too, the Versa 3 KR consistently achieved the rating “very good” in the parameters of metering accuracy, field emergence and longitudinal plant distribution. The Versa 3 KR also scored well in the field trial with winter wheat, achieving a rating of “very good” for metering accuracy and field emergence. In contrast to the oilseed rape test, the sowing here was carried out on a ploughed and flat cultivated area of the soil type silty loam.
The Versa 3 KR also impressed in the additional handling, operation and maintenance test with its simple handling and short times for various operating and maintenance steps.
Conclusion
The Horsch Versa 3 KR mechanical seed drill achieved top marks almost across the board in the DLG test in the laboratory, in the field and in the “Handling, operation and maintenance” test module and was awarded the DLG-APPROVED test mark for the “Function and quality of work” and “Handling, operation and maintenance” sub-tests. The complete results of the DLG test are available free of charge in test report 7413 at https://www.dlg.org/en/tests/agricultural-technology-and-farm-inputs/test-reports/test-mechanische-drillmaschine-horsch-versa-3-kr.
