Shropshire grower Tom Langley is impressed with the performance and accuracy of his DSX-W GEOSPREAD.
“When you’re spreading fertiliser for your customers, you need the job to be as accurate as possible,” explains Tom Langley of Longwood Farm, Eaton Constantine in Shropshire.
“Near enough, just isn’t good enough, given the high cost of fertiliser – it has to be bang-on.”
It is why he chose to invest in a Kubota DSX-W GEOSPREAD model for 2022, complete with weigh cells and automatic section control. Supplied by Battlefield Machinery, it provides reassuring accuracy that every kilo is put exactly where it’s needed. It replaces a smaller capacity spreader using the same technology.
“I’m chuffed to bits with it,” he adds. “And so are my customers. The accuracy is incredible, and the reduced overlaps are hugely beneficial when it comes to making the most of inputs.”
Tom acknowledges that crop lodging and striping is now a thing of the past, thanks to the spreader’s high-tech approach to pattern management, and its Rotaflow cup principle that presents fertiliser to the eight spreading vanes per disc.
“Crop canopies are level and even, we’ve stopped over-lapping and I’m now considering taking the next step – variable rate applications – particularly for my own crops,” he adds. “I’ve been having my fields soil sampled, and this will enable P and K corrections to be applied – but only where it’s needed.”
Tom’s fertiliser spreading workload amounts to around 850 acres each year, and it comprises his own crops plus those of customers who use him for contract applications. While tramlines have been at 24m, he has contract-drilled several fields at 36m this autumn, in response to customer needs. The wider width can be easily handled by the DSX-W GEOSPREAD machine.
“This spreader can comfortably work on 36m tramlines and achieve the same level of accuracy as I get at 24m,” he says. “With three hopper extensions, I have five-bag capacity instead of just three, so there’s more productivity too.”
“And with GEOSPREAD section control operating in one metre increments, we’ll be able to make better use of every kilo across every hectare, to suit almost any tramline width.”
Field sizes range from four to 22 acres, and few fields are considered flat, though Tom reports there’s no impact on application accuracy.
“It doesn’t matter what shape field or gradient I’m working on – the Kubota spreader is incredibly accurate,” says Tom. “Working at 16kph, I use a Tellus GO terminal for the spreader screen, with my tractor terminal showing GPS and section control. With ISOBUS, it’s plug-and-play simplicity and both screens are linked. There’s no need to fear the tech.”
He says additional mudguards keep the tractor well-protected from fertiliser, and the boundary spreading device provides a positive cut-off with the pattern when making that first headland pass.
“Fertiliser is too expensive to just throw it around, and I can’t imagine spreading solid fertiliser any better than this,” he says.
