Precision farming: sowing maize in Bibione with MaterMacc's MS8230
The testimony of the Moretto farm
Last spring we went to Bibione, in the province of Venice, to set up the MaterMacc precision seed drill used by customer Az. Agricola Moretto for sowing soya and maize. In the more than 30 hectares of land surveyed by MaterMacc technicians, sowing was carried out with the MS8230 precision seed drill, configured with 8 rows at 45 cm for soya, 300/590 frame with mechanical transmission of the seeders and Isobus control system for automatic row exclusion, seeding density monitoring and investment registration.
The seed drill was combined with a Same tractor (Silver 90 horsepower model that made the history of Italian agriculture) and a front tank for phytosanitary treatments. The MS8230 has a working width of 5.90 metres, which is reduced to 3 metres when transported by road. The machine in the field is also equipped with the Bee-Kit system, dedicated to safeguarding pollinating insects, which are extremely important for the ecosystem: the Bee-Kit consists of conveyors applied to the machine's fan that direct the flow of tanning dust towards the ground instead of into the atmosphere.
The accounts of Mr Moretto's many years of experience provided important information and a valuable moment of discussion with our company's technicians. Below is the testimony of Mr Michele and Mr Fabio regarding their experience of using the MaterMacc seed drill in the field.
What is your experience of sowing with MaterMacc's MS8230 precision seed drill?
A first and fundamental advantage is undoubtedly the machine's lightness: this season we wanted to switch to a higher number of rows, and despite this we did not have to replace the tractor, at the same time saving on fuel consumption.
We have been happy with the front rotary row cleaners. We do very little tillage for sowing maize, we give a non-selective weed killer in the crop before sowing: any weeds die in the field as well as the stalks that could be a mechanical impediment to the speed of sowing. Initially we were not convinced by the shape of the MaterMacc rotary row cleaners because we had seen much smaller residue spreaders from American machines.
We were invited by MaterMacc to do a field trial by testing their expertise in the field and we had to think again. The row cleaners cleared the seeding area of crop residue that could have impeded seeding and, in one pass, we were able to proceed at working speeds on the order of 8/9 km per hour, seeding with excellent precision. We also found great benefit from the stainless steel rear seed press wheel, which gave us excellent emergence uniformity over the entire working area.
A further advantage: after switching from a conventional machine to a machine with Isobus technology we are able to have a feedback on the quality of seeding and the quality of the seed deposition itself: when the computer - seeding control - begins to detect a high number of doubles or failures we simply act either on the seeding disc or on the depressor to remedy the unevenness of the seed we are using. In this way I can have real-time control in the field. In addition, with the ISOBUS system and mapping, we avoid the overlapping of rows, i.e. at crossings or headlands, the machine detaches the elements row by row, thus avoiding unnecessary waste of seed.
Michele and Fabio Moretto, May 2022
