December 2005

KRONE : 100 years of innovation

In 2006, Krone will celebrate 100 years of business - developing and supplying equipment to farmers and contractors on all five continents.

To list their achievements to date would take several years of newsletters so instead a focus on their current project would adequately demonstrate their commitment to their customers. Once Krone get their teeth into something, they don’t stop until it is complete.

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The Krone Bix X Cargo
The latest innovation at 60m3 of storage

The Krone Big X is an exemplary example of Krone’s true commitment to develop a product for the progress of agriculture. The Big X forage harvester was launched in 2002 with ratings from 605 hp V8, 700 hp V12 and 780 hp V12.

The standard units are configured with 6 hydraulically driven compression rollers and an 800 mm wide cutting drum which put the machine in territory not yet explored, by the traditional forage harvester manufacturers. Automotive drive mode reducing fuel consumption and a host of other features targeted to improve efficiency are standard features.

To compliment the Big X base unit, the innovative design concept of the row independent EasyCollect maize header created a highly efficient unit. It could only be a maize crop that would really test the limits of a machine with such huge power ratings. The secret to the EasyCollect header is reduced moving parts, reduced horse power consumption, reduced weight and very efficient crop gathering characteristics. Such was the success of the EasyCollect header that Krone now offer them with kits to fit opposition machines.

More recently Krone developed a 14 row 10.5m EasyCollect head which weighs in at a nominal 3200 kg. and to add to this the most recent development on the EasyCollect is the AutoScan feature - you dial in your minimum and maximum cut length and the scanner automatically varies the cut length of the crop depending on the colour i.e. the degree of ripeness, to ensure the best possible ensiling result.

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Krone Big X and EasyCollect header clean up

A forage harvester also needs a good grass front and the attention to detail here was not spared. The EasyFlow grass front has contour wheels which open out from the cab and the pick up with 6 rows of tines has no cam track - reduced noise, weight, wear and power required, and consequently reduced maintenance and running costs.

In 2004 Krone developed the first biogas drum for the Big X, with 40 knives to give a theoretical cut length down to 2.5 mm to cut crop for biogas plants.

Finally at Agritechnica 2005 Krone launched the new 500 hp 6, 650 hp V8 and 1000 hp Twin 6 models to compliment the fleet. 
When one considers that Krone have not been involved in the manufacture of self propelled forage harvesters before, their achievements to date are, to say the least, rather impressive.

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KRONE Multibale where large becomes small. The required bale portions are pre-defined while still working in the field from the control box in the tractor cab. The smaller individual bales are bound together by two twines, the complete bale by four twines.
Conventional big bales are bound up six times.
 
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KRONE Multibale with Separated Needles is simple in construction and secure in operation. There are large bales in the field and yet small bales in the stalls. KRONE Multibale opens up completely new areas of application for large balers and makes the KRONE big square baler, BIG PACK 1270 VFS/XC even more versatile.
 
New RABE POWER HARROWS at work

As with all new products introduced to the market, people are not always keen to be the first to try one out.

Well with a bit of smooth talking and a bit of demonstrating we managed to sell a Rabe PKE3000 3m power harrow and a Rabe VKE 6000K 6m folding power harrow into the Manawatu. The 3m unit rated at 250hp spec. with cam clutch, cage roller, stone protection device, bolt on tines and levelling board went to farmer Tony Collis at Kairanga with mixed livestock and cropping. 

The 6m unit rated at 380hp spec. with cam clutch, 3 speed gear box, bolt on tines and packer roller supplied by customer, went to contractor Wayne Mckenzie also operating out of Kairanga, servicing the Manawatu. We managed to catch up with Tony and Wayne late November 2005. 

Tony Collis says he was apprehensive about the purchase, but believed that the good reputation behind Tulloch Farm Machines gave him some peace of mind that this should be a good product. 

“ The price was a bit up - we could have bought something a bit cheaper but decided to take the gamble.” says Tony. “Working the unit behind our John Deere 7810 since November 2003 has given it a real test and so far the result has been quite pleasing.” 

“ The features have lived up to expectations. I liked the shape of the tines and the fact that there are 4 rotors per meter. We have very difficult soils here and if you do not work them properly you will have problems.” says Tony. 

“ So far the tine wear is good, the unit sounds good when it runs and I like the robust construction. The roller is real easy to adjust as well. The 4 rotors per meter means that both outer rotors are rotating inward and you can allow a reduced rotor speed but still produce a good seed bed finish.” concluded Tony.

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Rabe PKE 300 power harrow with owner Tony Collins.

Wayne Mckenzie - 6m Rabe Harrows 

Wayne took delivery of his 6m Rabe in May 2004 and has prepared over 800ha to date running it behind a John Deere 8400. Wayne says “I really like the low profile design of the headstock, there is not a single leak on the machine and the Walterscheid covers on the PTO shafts make maintenance trouble free. It really is built strong with some good supports on the wings to stop them from folding back and putting too much pressure on the pivots when in working position.”

“We work at between 4.5 to 10kph and the net work rate gives us a good output. As a contractor we are encountering a wide variety of soil conditions and the beauty about the 3 speed gearbox is we select the low speed of 258rpm for the light soils, run the tractor at 1900rpm and travel at up to 10kph.” 

“ For the heavy soils we select the high speed of 408 rpm, run the tractor at 2200rpm and travel at around 4.5kpm. The 4 rotors per meter ensure we get good results.” Wayne agrees that the front wrap around protection (which is standard on all P/PKE and V/VKE models) has reduced the incidence of wire etc fouling up around the rotors to almost zero. 

Another bonus with the Rabe explains Wayne - the front wrap around protection also acts as a levelling board but more importantly it prevents soil passing over the top of the rotors as you get with some other machines. 

Although it is still early days, Wayne says that he is pleased with the rate of wear on the tines so far and that he expects they could go to 1200ha.

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Rabe VKE 600K with owner Wayne Mckenzie.
 
John Young from RABE in NZ

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John Young on 2005 visit to TFM

John Young was on his rounds again, on this occasion timing his visit to coincide with the Southern Field Days.It is always good to keep close contact with suppliers because it helps them understand our particular requirements for New Zealand and we in turn always learn a great deal while they are with us. 

We met up with John again during our Grasslands tour, at the Rabe factory for a very impressive and enlightening tour, and again at the Grasslands Field Days. One key point of discussion was the MegaSeed, and having ironed out all the minor glitches from our trials it is conclusive that this machine is well suited for New Zealand conditions. 

Tim managed to get in a few customer visits for John and more importantly he showed how easy it is to set up the Rabe Raven reversible plough; one which was sold in North Canterbury. After the Field Days John came up to Masterton where again his work was cut out for him and again we learned - this time coulters are not necessary when you have a well engineered skimmer on your plough, even in grass. 

When importing new products it is good to know the background of the people you deal with and for us we believe John has a tremendous amount of experience in agriculture - that we can be assured he will be able to understand our needs. 

For John agricultural practice started at school at age 13 . After leaving school he went farming for 2 years and then from 1957-58 went to Plumpton Agricultural College. Having attained a Certificate in General Agriculture, John went farming till 1965. 

In 1966 John decided a radical change was in order and joined the Ford Tractor Company in Basildon and because of his efforts and abilities was later in 1969 sent to Brussels to the European Sales Promotions Department to head up and train a team of European Demonstrators. 1972 saw another change for John when he left Ford and joined Ransomes Sims and Jefferies as a UK based demonstrator, bringing him back home - which was useful as he was now newly married. 

In autumn 1973 John was promoted to area manager Midlands for the domestic market and in 1977 he was again rewarded for his abilities and promoted to Area Sales Manager - Far East, based in Singapore. 

Ransomes went through some turbulent times and in 1986 John left and joined Dowdeswell Engineering as Export Manager back home again in England. 1988 afforded John his first opportunity to visit New Zealand representing Dowdeswell. 


Important Link 

Finally in 2001 John’s career took another turn and he joined Rabe Agrarsysteme’s of Germany and is now our important link to Germany.
 
Einbock Now available

Grasslands tour initiates new product line for TFM 

With the interest and success of the MegaSeed we soon realised that there was a huge potential for a precise but lightweight seeding unit aimed at a different area of the market. 

The Grasslands tour was therefore a perfect opportunity to make some enquiries. We came across Einbock of Austria and are pleased to say negotiations went well and a consignment has already arrived and more are on the way.

Key features of the Einbock are:
 
  • Lightweight compact design
  • Accurate metering controlled by stepless gearbox
  • Precise Austrian engineering
  • Flexible design to suit numerous configurations
  • Simple operation
  • Adaptable to sow huge variety of seed at wide range of application rates
  • Electric or Hydraulic fan drive

Agricultural Machinery since 1934

In 1934 Leopold Einbock started up a blacksmith shop specialising in horse shoeing and farm vehicles. In the mid 50’s he changed his focus to the manufacture of cultivators, potato planters and harrows. 

Today Einbock, a mid sized family run enterprise, are manufacturers of a wide range of seed bed preparation, seeding, undersowing, mulching, cultivation and sport turf equipment.

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Top and above - the 6m Einbock seeding hill country in the Wairarapa
 
Christmas Message

Billions of dollars are ploughed into technology, research and development to enable us to predict the weather, grow more resilient crops, combat pests, cultivate the ground in a different manner, cut grass more efficiently and the list goes on; all to enable farmers to produce more from less. 

The key is to be able to adapt. We believe the new innovations in design and concept we are able to deliver to our customers from our trusted suppliers, is the reason we again have posted a record season. 

We at Tulloch Farm Machines would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their valued support and wish them a pleasant and productive summer and a prosperous 2006. 

The Tulloch Team