More than just machinery

04 / 2012

World record for maize planting 6 24 hours – 24 rows – 448.29 hectares

With or without roller 24 Practical test: Terrano FM

Training at HORSCH 34 Key to further success THE FUTURETerrano IN CULTIVATION IS HAPPENINGMT TODAY

4-bar universal cultivator — Shallow mixing and deep loosening — Very manoeuvrable due to large wheels in the centre chassis — SteelDisc packer for heavy soils

www.horsch.com terra

Editorial Contents

Dear reader News Agritechnica contest 4 The first half 2012 is already over and in Maize planting competition Hungary 4 this issue of terraHORSCH we would like to 2011/2012 – Review and perspectives 4 provide an insight into the HORSCH world World record: The days of Chaplygin 6 beyond reports about machines – into Around the world special activities in the markets, into the Small country – large market (CH) 10 development of our HR sector and into our Farming in South Africa (ZA) 11 activities with regard to apprenticeship. HORSCH in the Ukraine (Traugott Horsch)14 Highlights of this first half surely were the HORSCH seminars, the roadshow Product Company insights Campaign 2012 – for the first time at an We are HORSCH: That’s the HIT 16 News worldwide (Michael Horsch) 18 International level, the world record with Researching, developing and testing the 24-row HORSCH Maestro, the Field under one roof (Philipp Horsch, Days in Schwandorf, the training activities Michael Pirkenseer) 20 for our employees and the increase of our Growth needs manpower production capacity even in the United (Horst Keller, Gerhard Springs) 22 States as sales throughout the whole product range have developed in an Machinery test extremely positive way although HORSCH had already last year increased its turnover by more With or without roller: Terrano FM 24 than 60 per cent compared to the year before. Farm report Due to these turnover increases we are obliged to re-organise various structures and 1,000 tons per employee (RO) 26 operational procedures, especially the personnel structure. It is our objective to go on training HORSCH technology in Lithuania (LT) 27 our employees even more intensively. More importantly we want to further develop our ap- prenticeship training and employ even more apprentices. With a new training workshop and Practical experience new training rooms we now have larger facilities for practical and theoretical training at our A Titan in Sibiria (RU) 29 disposal. Our focus is on the extension of various production sites. This month we are moving Titan – Main player in a well organised harvest (FR) 30 into the HORSCH ACI - Agricultural Centre of Innovation. The engineers of our test depart- ment now have at their disposal a hall with 2,000 square metres where they can test compo- Inside HORSCH nents and machines. The R& D offices with about 90 work stations will be finished in August. Staff meeting and company anniversaries 32 At the moment Europe is in a obscure situation from a from an economic point of view. A sit- Apprenticeship Racing-Day 2012 33 uation which – depending on the country – concerns and unsettles the farmers. We are cur- Girls’ Day at HORSCH 33 renty talking a lot to farmers from all over Europe who are visiting us for our Field Days. In Training: Key to further success 34 countries like France and Spain this uncertainty is quite evident and we are anxious what this HORSCH Foundation might mean for us in these markets in the future. Helping people to help themselves - From an agricultural point of view winter and spring have been a challenge for the whole of Cuba 35 Europe, but also for the United States. However, the situation seems to stabilise and the mood Fighting poverty through enterprise 36 of the farmers is quite positive, as the prices for corn, oilseeds and maize (market prices) are on a rather high level. Service & Sales Full speed ahead for the customers: I wish you a successful harvest. Hentis Landmaschinen (DE) 37

Yours, FITZ Training centre From the HORSCH Demogarden 39 Cornelia Horsch HORSCH Seminars 2012: summary 44

IMPRINT terraHORSCH Edited by: Johannes Hädicke terraHORSCH is published twice a year in the More than just machinery Articles written by: D. Brandt, M. Braun, V. Briotet, following languages: German, English, French, It is the international customer magazine of C. Curca, A. Grauvogl, C. Horsch, J. Hädicke, Polish and Russian. HORSCH Maschinen GmbH H. Keller, R. Landes, F. Masur, M. Mumme, The magazine and all its articles and illustrations are Sitzenhof 1 J. Noordhof, W. Nürnberger, G. Springs, V. Veklenko, protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the li- DE-92421 Schwandorf H. Wolf, J. Rath-Kampe mits fixed by the copyright act is illegal without the Tel.: +49/9431/7143-0 approval of the publisher. Fax: +49/9431/41364 Photos: HORSCH archives, Photographie Petra Kell- [email protected] ner, J. Hädicke, M. Mumme, J. Noordhof Layout concept: MarkenGrün www.horsch.com Translations: English: H. Wolf; French: S. Proust, Layout: Otterbach Medien KG GmbH & Co S. Vanderhaeghe; Polish: B. Dudkowski; Russian: Responsible for the content: V. Veklenko Print: Vogel Druck, Würzburg Cornelia Horsch

3 terra News

Agritechnica contest

The visitors responded enthu- forms entered the contest. Hotel Oswald in the Bavarian Forest - is siastically to the HORSCH The winners are: Karl-Otto Reinhard from Schenklengs- contest at the Agritechnica The first prize – HORSCH cultivates 20 feld in Hesse. 2011. As a first prize you hectare with a Terrano – went to Ingo The third prize – a Leatherman BLAST were able to win 20 hectare of Dülm-Leseberg from Aerzen in Lower – went to Markus Grimm from Garbsen perfect cultivation – HORSCH cul- Saxony. in Lower Saxony. tivates 20 hectare with a Terrano. The winner of the second prize – two More than 900 usable participation nights for two people in the Romantic We hope the winners enjoy their prizes.

Maize planting competition

n 2011 a maize planting competiton was For the competition Hungary is divided arranged for the third time by the Hun- into five regions. A winner is determined garian maize club Magyar Kukorica Klub. for each region for early, medium and late Any farmer and any farm can participate. varieties as well as an ultimate winner for IThe only condition for participation is: the all five regions. In 2010 due to the optimum cultivation area has to be at least five hec- climatic conditions the yields were ex- tare. The criteria for winning is simple: The tremely high. In 2011 these record yields winner is who produces most. The competi- could not be obtained. The ultimate winner tion is not aimed at manufacturers or cer- for 2011 was the Jogschi GmbH and its tain types of machine. Every farmer uses the owner Johann Gschier. The Austrian-born technology he normally uses on his farm. farmer together with his family manages a The reason for the competition is to find farm in Ivánc. With a maize yield of 16.288 out how much yield can be achieved in t/ha he achieved the best overall result. Di- which region, with which cultivation rectly before sowing the soil was prepared Johann Gschier method, with which maize variety. There with a rotary harrow. On the 15th of April are no guidelines whether or how much 2011 83,000 grains/ha were planted at an winning – a HORSCH Maistro 11 RC. “The fertilizer can be used. With regard to irriga- operational speed of 7 km/h. According to Maistro guarantees precise singling and ex- tion both versions are possible – with or Johann Gschier the machine he uses for act placement depth“, Gschier praises his without irrigation system. planting maize played an important part in seed drill

2011 – A record year HORSCH reckons with even further growth in 2012

n 2011 the turnover of the HORSCH ing market shares and especially in extend- awarded with the prize Machine of the Maschinen GmbH amounted to 165 mil- ing the product portfolio. Year 2012 at the Agritechnica are growing lion Euro. This is a new record in the com- The most significant machinery turnover considerably. For these machines the order pany’s history and means an increase of derives from the Pronto, Terrano, Joker books are filled to an extremely satisfying I60 per cent compared to the previous year. and Tiger lines. The plant protection spray- extent. The out-of-season sales for all prod- Currently HORSCH is looking forward to ers Horsch Leeb and the new pneumatic uct lines in general were very satisfying. All 2012 in a cautiously optimistic way and single grain seed drill Maestro which was these records, however, would not have plans a medium-term turnover increase to approx. 200 million Euro. Strong key markets (Germany, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Denmark), once again rising sales in Russia and the Ukraine as well as a considerable turnover increase of the newly founded HORSCH UK contributed to the enormous turnover in- crease. In 2011, the Baltic States and the United States developed positively, too. In the United States, HORSCH North America and HORSCH Anderson succeeded in gain-

HORSCH ACI (Agricultural Centre of Innovation)

4 been possible without new all machines. In 2012, the 2012 are the strenghtening of seed drill Maestro. This year’s manpower. In this sector, too, multimedia presence was ex- existing and new respectively agricultural seminars are already the company’s slogan “Farming tended by popular social media young markets as well as a fur- finished and have again been with Passion“ is an attitude in- channels. HORSCH now can ther development of the extremely successful. In total herent in all employees at home be found in Facebook (face- HORSCH core competences like more than 1000 people partici- and abroad – the number of book.com/HorschMaschinen), intensive instruction and train- pated in the seminars in Schwan- employees as already risen to Google+ (gplus.to/Horsch), ing in the HORSCH FITCentre dorf (company headquarters), currently 931 people. And Twitter (twitter.com/ and on the occasion of the Prac- Gera (Thuringia), Linstow (Meck- HORSCH is still looking for new HorschMaschinen) and tical Field Days or on site with lenburg-West Pomerania) and employees – see the HORSCH with all videos under You- the roadshow “Product cam- Nienburg (Lower Saxony) and web page for the current job Tube (youtube.com/ paign 2012“, where the focus is Lincoln UK. Read more about offers. HorschMaschinenGmbH). on the Agritechnica new prod- the seminars as of page 44 in This increase, of course, ne- Among the other objectives for ucts like the new single grain this issue of terraHORSCH. cessitates an extension of the production sites. Currently, Advert there are three large HORSCH construction sites with a total investment sum of several mil- Farming with passion lion Euro. The HORSCH ACI (Ag- ricultural Centre of Innovation) is built at the company head- quarters in Schwandorf – a com- pletely new building with state- of-the-art equipment for the research and development de- With the slogan “Farming with Passion“ that is lived by all employees from management partment. board to apprentice an extraordinary and sound growth in profi t, turnover and employees has been achieved in the past years by a highly motivated team, the person is always in fo- At the production site Ron- cus of the family-run company. Beside growth a top working atmosphere and social com- neburg the area of the steel- mitment are part of HORSCH’s core objectives. We are one of the leading manufacturers processing HORSCH Industriet- of cultivators, seed drills and plant protection technology and have acquired a worldwide echnik is nearly doubled. The reputation. The name HORSCH not only represents technology, but also innovative, future- production department is ex- oriented farming systems. With an export ratio of approx. 70 % and own international tended by several assembly lines branches at the moment about 940 employees – with tendency to rise – are attending to and an additional powder coat- customers in almost 50 countries. ing plant will be built. Also, a completely new area for load- In the course of the company growth and international expansion we are looking for ing area for machines will be Employees (male/female) built in Ronneburg. At the plant protection site to support our team and who want to participate in the growth and the success of the company. in Landau construction works are in full swing. A new hall for Your tasks: the departments service, main- - Your take over responsibility in your scope of duties. tenance and quality control is - Your work in a team and support others. being built here. Thus, the area - Your work in a cost-effi cient and environmentally conscious way. under roof at HORSCH Leeb will - You contribute to a good working atmosphere and support your colleagues. be increased by approx. 80 per cent. Your profi le: - You are interested in the agricultural sector. In the past year, a new inter- - You are a loyal employee and have an eye for the developments within the company. net era started for HORSCH. The - You are open to changes and take part in initiating innovations. completely new web page - You are an employee who identifi es with the company’s mission statement. www.horsch.com went live - You are a personality that appreciates the success and the achievements of others. right in time for the Agritech- - You are an employee who commits himself according to his qualifi cations, skills and nica. The new web page is not talents and you voluntarily share your knowledge and skills. the previous page that has been extended by new functions or Are you interested? sectors, but a completely new On our website www.horsch.com you will fi nd all current job offers. We are looking forward to your application. and multi-lingual page has been designed. It excels due to its modern design, better trans- parency, quick navigation, up- www.horsch.com to-date contents and all data of

5 terra News

The days of Chaplygin

ince the 28th of April 2012 Claas The world record was carried out in ground fertilisation. As the eastern Eu- and HORSCH together hold the fields near the Russian Chaplygin in the ropean market offers the largest poten- world record for precision plant- middle of the black soil region. The ob- tial for the technology used, the record ing of maize. In 24 hours a total jective of this joint event was to plant was carried out in Russia. The world Sarea of 448.29 hectares was sown and maize on 24 rows at a high speed and record team consisted of 16 employees fertilised at the same time with a XERI- with a very good accuracy. It no doubt of Claas and HORSCH as well as of two ON 5000 and a single grain seed drill is the first world record where maize independent experts. A team member Maestro 24.70 SW. was planted with simultaneous under- reports.

20th of April The first team members and the ma- chines arrive. The HORSCH Maestro, the Claas Xerion and a Scorpion telehandler which will be used to fill the seed are being prepared. The conditions on site are ideal. Everyone is confident.

24th of April More team members arrive. The fill- ing of the hopper is tested. For fertiliser there is a Kamaz truck with a HORSCH attachment and an auger (output: one ton per minute). The video crew, too, has arrived in the meantime. What we worry about is the soil: although the

6 afternoon, the rig is tested on a field Maestro and Xerion will go back to the that is five kilometres away. We have a farm and will be cleaned. The rest of the test area of a respectable 170 hectares group will take another look at the at our disposal. First of all the accuracy world record fields. of the steering system is checked, then the Maestro is finely tuned. After having examined the world re- cord fields we are much more confident. Stop! Everything got clogged. The The explanation for the bad condition soil on the test field is too wet. of the test field is a plough pan. Fortu- nately, the record fields were not culti- weather is spring like and mild, there Emergency meeting: the decision: vated with a plough, but with a Tiger LT. still snow a short time ago. The black earth is very sticky.

Towards evening the fields for the world record are visited together with the farm’s agronomist. The soil has dried well, but to achieve a better crum- bly structure it has to be cultivated again shallowly with a Tiger 10 LT. The cultivation will be carried out today or tomorrow at the latest. It will take two days altogether. So it is not sure whether we can start the record attempt on Thursday as scheduled or on Friday. The weather is fine, but not stable. Hope- fully, it will remain dry.

25th of April The machines work perfectly. In the

7 terra News

First the headlands are sown. With a working width of 17 metres the drivers have a challenging task which could not be mastered without the satellite-based Claas control system. Section Control, is needed especially when restarting at the field boundaries.

12.55: With all the VIPs watching it happens: four people in the tractor cab simply are too much. With all the tur- moil the driver presses the wrong but- ton. The seed units lower while going backwards. As a result the machines clogs. The rig stops. Anyway: There are many wet spots in something special. the field. The drivers have to be ex- 13.14: Everyone went to the field to tremely careful, especially at night. 07.30: The team arrives at the field. clean the machine. Now we can go on. Preparations before the start. The ma- The rig goes at a speed of 15.5 km/h, the 26th of April chines are checked once again. A pavil- field length at the moment is 1.2 km. Fine tuning. We all hope that it will ion is set up at the field boundaries for Everything is checked continuously by be dry tomorrow. Then everything the team. the jury members. They confirm an ex- could work out. What caused some dis- cellent placement result. The specified agreements was that now different 09.00: The helicopter arrives. But we spot ratio is more than 90 per cent! seed is to be used. The Maestro is ad- doubt if the pilot is up to the task: the justed again. To avoid delays tomorrow, man in his late 50s wears a suit and a tie. 14.30: The first stop is excellent. It the rig spends the night in the field. A takes only 6 minutes 20 seconds to refill guard keeps watch. 10.00: Appearances can be deceiving. seed and fertiliser. In fact, we had calcu- Those who take part in the test flight lated about ten minutes. Perhaps we Afterwards team meeting. The last are enthusiastic. The former army pilot are able to make up for the lost time. details are discussed together. is a perfect master of his trade! 17.00: We are progressing excel- The attempt to get some sleep in ad- 11.30: Starting time approaches. The lently. The plot length now is about 3 vance fails. It is already 23.00 h when we official clock has been set up. Russian km. We sow about five hectares per arrive at the hotel in Lipezk. journalists and several camera crews bout. have arrived and have started report- 27th of April ing. Farm manager Pjotr Ivanovitsch 17.20: Current data, directly from the Bykov and a prominent local politician machine: So far, 101 hectares have been have arrived to be present at the start- sown – 22.9 hectares per hour. The ing shot. speed is 14.7 km/h. The coefficient vari- ation is 22 per cent, the specified spot 12.00: Off we go! Everything works ratio 94 per cent. Accuracy, thus, is more like a charm. than excellent. The diesel consumption

05.30: Shock: When looking out of the hotel window we see wet patches on the street. As we take a closer look, we realise that the streets in Lipezk have been cleaned with water.

06.00: Departure from the hotel. We did not get any breakfast at that time. A few of us were lucky enough to get hold of a lunch box. The farm spontane- ously organises a full breakfast for the whole team. Russian hospitality really is

8 of the Xerion is 3.24 litres per hectare, between the coulters. the 450-hectare-mark? After consulta- 77 litres per hour. The time for the pit tion of the jury the speed is slightly in- stop is 6 minutes 50 seconds, for the last 28th of April creased. Accuracy still is excellent. filling we even took only 4 minutes and 07.00: In the meantime we have 57 seconds. moved to the second field. The first field 12.00: The whole team stops the rig. only “theoretically” had 350 hectares. The jury retrieves the machinery data. 20.00: After eight hours we have al- The field boundaries partly had not The result: 448.29 hectares! ready managed 153 hectares. been cultivated. If it goes on this well, land could get scarce. At the previous But the other values, too, speak for 20.30: Night falls. Hopefully, dew stop we filled up diesel for the first themselves: With a specified spot ratio does not bring too much humidity. time. of 94 per cent the placement result is excellent. The Xerion only consumed The night was quite busy. Filling All through the night the placement 3.17 litres diesel per hectare. That’s ef- worked out much better than expected, quality was checked. The jury is very sat- ficiency! but there were several error messages. isfied. The team went to the machines at high A champagne shower is the best way speed to fix the errors. Director Bykov is 08.00: Everything runs smoothly. No to get rid of black earth dust. We then the most daring driver – with his UAZ special incidents. are all invited to the canteen of the off-road vehicle he speeds over the field farm. Our Russian hosts insist on having at 80 km/h despite a broken windscreen 10.00: Still two hours to go. We al- a party. and a thus extremely limited visibility! ready have safely managed 400 hec- The sources of the errors were trivial: tares. Our boldest predictions have al- 12.20: The Maestro is re-filled. The rig foreign objects in the seed and metal ready been topped. Might we manage finishes sowing the field.

9 terra Around the world Small country – large market

GVS new sales partner in Switzerland

arming in Switzerland - one thinks of cows on alpine pastures, but also of high subsidies and pro- ducer prices. However, with an Fincreasing opening towards the world market the conditions in Switzerland have become “more normal“.

In Switzerland farming is mostly done in the midland which is situated in the cantons Lucerne, Aargau, Solothurn, Bern, Fribourg and Vaud. In the north west and north it is limited by the Jura mountain range, in the south by the Alps. The prevailing type of soil is para- brown earth, at higher altitudes brown earth. The main cultures are wheat, bar- ley, maize as well as potatoes and sugar beet. But it would be unwise to concen- trate exclusively on this region. Except for the high alpine regions, there is farming in the whole of Switzerland. From left to right: Ugo Tosoni (managing director GVS Agrar AG), Traugott Horsch, Ivo Fausch This is the reason why in addition to (sales manager GVS Agrar AG) our previous sales partner we now have a second partner for the Swiss market – the GVS Agrar based in Schaffhausen. Their product range also include gott Horsch, who within the manage- The advantage of this new partner: Via Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra. Ad- ment board is responsible for the Swiss a network of local dealers HORSCH ditionally, they have an own brand for market. „GVS’s strategy is a premium products will be present nationwide in agriculture machines and equipment. single brand strategy. We are sure that the whole of Switzerland. “HORSCH fits in very well“, says Trau- this will have extremely positive conse- quences especially when counselling customers.“ Traugott Horsch estimates that among them will be many contrac- tors. „Up to now we have mainly sold Pronto 3 DC in Switzerland, but I also see potential for Terrano FX, Joker, Tiger AS, Express and, of course, Maestro.“

GVS Agrar is completely responsible for sales including the storage of spare parts. The responsible employees of the sales and service department have al- ready been trained at Sitzenhof.

At an event on the 24th of May 2012 HORSCH was officially presented as a partner. This was the start of the cooperation of HORSCH and GVS in Switzerland

10 Farming in South Africa

A personal report by Rolf Landes

September 2007 It was already more than four years ago that I told Cornelia Horsch, who was my boss at that time, and her hus- band Michael that I was going to leave the company and return to South Africa with my family. While I was working in the marketing department I had been able to witness and participate in ten exciting years of development of the HORSCH company. Today my family and I live in the Cape region of South Africa, approx. 150 kilometres south-east of Cape Town and I work in the farming sector in quite numerous ways. The Landes family Our farm The Western Cape Province where our farm is situated is different from the rest of South Africa from a climatic Industrial laundry 2008 point of view as it is the only region As the farm had to be re-established My main objective for the farm was where it predominantly rains in winter. first and, thus, a sustainable income was to cultivate the 70 hectares of arable In our region there is an annual rainfall only to be expected in the medium land with the aid of a contractor and of approx. 650 millimetres with 70 per term, we were looking for an additional finally to gather experiences and facts cent falling between June and October. source of income. Due to the regional about how productive the land really is. For the last five years, however, the an- situation it was obvious to look for this In addition we wanted to carry out cer- nual rainfall has been below 500 milli- source in the tourism sector. tain infrastructural improvements. metres. The average annual tempera- ture is 17° Celsius. The temperatures, We decided to take over a well-estab- In December it was time for the first however, may rise to above 30° in sum- lished industrial laundry. harvest. The average yields in the West- mer and fall below zero in winter. The soils are extremely challenging, on our farm they are mostly sandy and partly stony. Since 1994, there have no longer been any subsidies for farming in South Africa and an extreme structural change has set in which is still in full swing, es- pecially for the typical products cereals, milk and meat.

We bought our farm Paddafontein in May 2008. When we took over it was in a very bad state. The total area is 250 hectares. On 70 hectares cereals were grown, 130 hectares were used as cattle and sheep pastures, the rest was fallow land. There was no technology, no ma- chines in a ready-for use condition.

11 terra Around the world

ern Cape Province for cereals amount to winter 2008/09 and at the beginning of kind is an important and necessary part approx three tons per hectare whereas June a container with a Sprinter 6 and a of my daily work routine. A quite useful there may be less than two tons if there tractor arrived at the farm. Our arable side effect of this activity are a lot of is less rainfall or up to six tons if the land was completely cultivated with contacts to people who work in the weather conditions are optimum. This oats. Due to my experiences of the year agrarian sector. Due to one of these depends directly on the quantity and before I decided to rent the land for one contacts I was able to enter the line of time of the rainfall during the growth year to a livestock breeding farm in the development work and advisory activ- stage. The average yield for our first neighbourhood on condition to be able ity. My first task as a salaried project harvest was 2.2 tons per hectare. But to sow in contract. manager was to establish a ten-hectare the bottom line was that we made no vegetable-growing farm on a former profit. We had to learn that mere crop At the laundry we literally ran out of rice farm in the North Cape Province farming on this site is risky and should laundry. But we were able to more than which had been abandoned for almost definitely be combined with livestock overcompensate that by acquiring a 20 years. As the farm was to be man- farming. new customer. aged as an organic farm I was sent to a course where I was trained as an inspec- With regard to the laundry the great- 2010 tor for the organic certification of farms. est challenge was to arouse enthusiasm 2010 was the year of the Football Thus, my scope of duties within my ad- among our employees for my ideas to World Cup and many people in South visory activity has been realigned. I now reconsider existing work routines and Africa – including ourselves – hoped prepare farms for their organic certifica- organise them differently. For many of that this might bring about a rebound tion. them it was completely new to work in- in the tourism sector. However, this dependently, take over responsibility turned out to be a fallacy. The World 2011 and answer for mistakes that have been Cup, indeed, brought a lot of foreign At the beginning of 2011, we started made. tourists to the country for a short time, to grow honeybush as a test. Honey- but only to the cities where the football bush is a tea plant that is related to 2009 stadiums were situated. rooibosh. It is very undemanding and 2009 was marked by the global finan- can cope with nutrient-poor soils with cial crisis. The crop prices fell to a low At the farm it was time to readjust low pH-value (below five), extreme dry- level, thus making crop farming unprof- the strategy and to think about a new ness and heat. In our region, it partly itable for us. Due to the lack of foreign alternative income. And my idea was grows wild. But there are two farms tourists the turnover of the laundry de- nurse cow breeding. Among others the that grow honeybush for commercial creased extremely. advantages are the minor intensity of use. There are two different cultivation labour, robust, well-adapted breeds for methods: sowing seed or planting al- Despite my relocation I still was in our region and a good demand for ready grown plants. We have tried both contact with HORSCH and Michael calves by the feedlots near Cape Town. methods – we sowed about three hec- Horsch was informed about my agricul- We started with 20 suckler cows, in the tares and planted one hectare. tural undertakings in South Africa. He long rum we aim for a population of volunteered to design a tine seed drill 100 cows. 2012 and the future adapted to the conditions of my site Farming in South Africa is a great and to put it at my disposal for testing Advisory activity challenge. The natural conditions often purposes. This was put into practice in The gathering of information of all are difficult and require a comparatively

12 high capital investment. The local pro- Our last mainstay is contract sowing. duction of cereals, meat, milk is under Over the past three years I was able to enormous pressure in global competi- sow up to 300 hectares per year. With tion as, basically, the agricultural sector regard to performance it would be pos- has to make do without public subsi- sible to sow up to 1000 hectare during dies. the sowing season from the beginning of April until mid-June. But as always it Quick facts: South Africa In this situation we are, for a start, takes time for new methods to get es- Official languages: Afrikaans, going to concentrate on three main- tablished. It is our objective to work English, Süd-Ndebele, isiXhosa, stays and develop them continuously. with as many cattle farms in our neigh- isiZulu, Nord-Sotho, Sesotho, Extensive cattle breeding is in line with bourhood (within a radius of 10 to 15 Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda, the natural conditions on our farm and kilometres) as possible and to increase Xitsonga guarantees a good yield return in the our performance to 500 hectares of con- Capital: medium term. tract sowing per year. Executive: Pretoria (= seat of the government), To cultivate honeybush is a typical It will still take a few years to develop legislature: Cape Town, niche product which still is in its early our farm on a level where it will earn judiciary: Bloemfontein stages. Thus, a certain risk for the suc- sustainable income. This is why we are Total area: 1.219.912 km² cess cannot be excluded. But as the in- going to continue our extra-agricultural Agricultural area/arable land: vestment costs are relatively low and as mainstays like the laundry and the advi- 993.780 km² / 145.000 km² the conditions of our site are ideal for sory activity. Population: 49.004.031 (2011) cultivating honeybush, it is, by all Population density: means, worth a try from our point of 41 inhabitants per km² view. If honeybush can be grown suc- Independence: 31st of May 1910 cessfully it can compete with traditional End of apartheid: 1994 permanent cultures like wine or fruits.

13 terra Around the world “Breadbasket of Europe today is a myth“

Johannes Kluth (left) and Traugott Horsch (right)

about the country. Mr Horsch, can you that for example farmers in Northern provide an insight from an agricultural Germany, in the meantime, harvest sig- point of view? nificantly more. Traugott Horsch: It is quite difficult to generalise as the country is some- terraHORSCH: What do the farmers what divided. In the west the climate is cultivate? rather similar to that in central Europe, Traugott Horsch: Crop-intensive rota- the yields can be at a similar level, too. tions are problematic in the Ukraine Further to the south or east there are because of the cold winters and hot HORSCH Ukraine TOV Continental conditions with heat and summers. This experience is well-known dryness in summer. The low annual to many farmers who came from West- rainfall was crucial for the develop- ern Europe to the Ukraine and set up a he Ukraine has become highly ment of the famous black earth soils. farm. Multi-chain rotations including important for HORSCH: Already The myth of the breadbasket of Europe, spring crops make much more sense. the Ukraine ranks fifth on the however, dates from days gone by. Maize, soya and always sunflowers are turnover ranking list. terra- Back then these soils indeed were com- common practice. THORSCH talked to Traugott Horsch, the paratively productive due to missing Export Director responsible for the technology, fertilisation and plant pro- terraHORSCH: In Russia, agricultural Ukraine of the management board. tection. Today, however, the lack of holdings farm a large part of the arable water and the high temperatures are land. Is this the same in the Ukraine? terraHORSCH: Although this year the the limiting factor. In Western Europe, Traugott Horsch: Yes, by all means. In European Football Championship takes the technological progress contributed the less productive south there still is a place in the Ukraine, we know little enormously to the yield increase so larger number of independent private

14 farms with arable land of up to 6000 used for direct sowing, the Sprinter is satisfied with the sales and market hectares. In the good farming regions slightly less common. shares. 2011 was a good year and 2012 the agricultural holdings clearly domi- will be even better. This is the reason nate – some of them farm several hun- terraHORSCH: Is there a trend for the why we give this market top priority. dred thousand hectares and are backed future for a specific machine that begins The Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan by large investors. There are only a few to show? together might become the most pioneers from Western Europe who Traugott Horsch: In the Ukraine, too, important market for HORSCH and own a farm in the Ukraine. deep cultivation with simultaneous fer- might top even Germany. tilisation is an important trend and also terraHORSCH: How up to date are site-specific versions of strip farming. these holdings with regard to machin- The new technology has been accepted ery and management? well and quickly. We also see a great Traugott Horsch: In a relatively short potential for the Maestro. It is perfectly time, they have advanced considerably suitable for the numerous row crops like with regard to technology and have sunflower, maize, soya and sugarbeet to achieved such a high standard that I achieve a high area output with maxi- personally would not have considered mum accuracy. possible five years ago. They now farm with the most up to date cultivation terraHORSCH: Since the separation methods and the management struc- from your sales partner Agro Soyuz in tures that has been established are very 2006 HORSCH has been building up its modern. However, the conditions were own sales structure in the Ukraine. Can rather favourable as the high prices for you describe it in more detail? food have encouraged this develop- Traugott Horsch: We have two sales ment. But the optimum has not yet channels. On the one hand we have a been reached and the farms go on partnership with three importing deal- growing. By the way, the land cannot ers, on the other hand there is our own be bought, but only taken over for cul- HORSCH sales branch (HORSCH Ukraine tivation. All land that is suitable for TOV). Like in Russia we share the head- farming is already cultivated intensively quarters in Polkownitsche, approx. 120 so that sudden yield increases are no kilometres south of the capital Kiev, longer to be expected. with Ropa. The cooperation is excellent and we complement one another per- terraHORSCH: Intensive farming fectly. The task of HORSCH Ukraine is to methods require suitable machines. Are support our sales partners with regard there suitable machines among the to sales support and service. An impor- HORSCH product range and which tant asset is our central spare parts ones? stock. Traugott Horsch: This was a learning But the real sales are carried out process for us, as, contrary to what we directly between dealer and customer. expected, the farming methods do not We are assisting with regard to advice tend to be direct seeding systems like in and service in case the dealer meets the USA. But in fact due to the higher with problems. HORSCH Ukraine is man- yields the same machines as in Western aged by our employee Johannes Kluth, Europe are required, only larger. he also is the director of the company. For cultivation Tiger LT and MT are We are planning to go on expanding important, as they need robust machines our staff with employees on site. for continuous use. And continuous use means 24 hours a day. As the standard terraHORSCH: Does this mean that tractors mostly have 250 to 350 hp, the the economic crisis has been overcome working width for intensive cultivation in the Ukraine? is four, mostly six metres. If tractors with Traugott Horsch: It is not as simple 400 to 500 hp are available, eight-metre as that. It seems that in the agricultural versions are used, too. In the Ukraine, sector the Ukraine slowly gets over it, the working width of the compact disc but you cannot yet refer to it as a harrow Joker is between six and twelve boom. Financing still is the bottleneck. metres. As a seed drill the Pronto is In addition, the Ukraine is more unsta- especially popular. Six metre and more ble from a political point of view than are typical. In the south, the new Pronto Russia so that there still is no continu- NT with 12 metre working width is also ity. However, we from HORSCH are very

15 terra Company insights

That’s the HIT

or HORSCH the Sitzenhof is a lot production, explains. “We rather want- of things at the same time: head- ed to gather knowhow in prefabrica- quarters, research and develop- tion and keep it within the company. ment centre, production site, lo- The R&D department still is at Sitzen- Fgistic centre, agricultural farm and last hof. If necessary, we offer support for but not least home of the Horsch family. example with regard to the optimisa- But it quickly became clear that it would tion of production costs.“ not be able to keep up with the consid- From an organisational point of view erable growth of the company simply HIT is managed as an independent com- for lack of space. Soon part of the pro- pany, it is, however, completely owned duction was sourced out to regional by the HORSCH Holding. The product suppliers. In 2007 additional capacity range consists of cut parts made of was created with the production site in sheet metal, tubes and hollow profiles, Ronneburg. In the same year HORSCH trimming as well as forming parts and Industrietechnik GmbH, in short HIT, a complete welded components. The production plant for components, was HORSCH production plants in Ronneb- founded. “It was not our intention to urg und Schwandorf are the main cus- take business away from our established tomers (to almost 100 per cent), occa- suppliers“, Roland Schönleber, who is sionally part of the preproduction of the responsible person of the manage- ment board for purchasing, logistics and Roland Schönleber

16 HORSCH suppliers is carried out. HIT’s applied energy is used for the real cut- that is produced in large units is the turnover amounts to more than 15 mil- ting, the remainder is used for the drive frame of the Terrano 3 FX. Per shift four lion Euro per year. and cooling systems. The laser accuracy frames can be completed including the “We have a great many of state-of- is in the 1/10-millimetre range. The laser packer, this amounts to 60 units per the-art machines at our disposal,“ says is filled and emptied automatically with week. There are other data that are Torsten Stehfest. The graduate in me- a pallet rack. Our tube can handle mate- quite striking: At the production site in chanical engineering who is the produc- rial up to a wall thickness of ten milli- Ronneburg 2,500 tons of sheet metal tion manager at HIT. “There is for exam- metres. The output amounts to 3.2 kW.“ and 120,000 metres of tubes and pro- ple a plasma plant that can cut sheet Thus, the “cutting“ part is finished. files are handled per year. HIT’s con- metal with a maximum dimension of For stamping or bending of tubes HIT sumption of welding wire alone 6,000 x 2,500 x 40 millimetre. The power uses a 160 ton C column press with a amounts to 50 tons per year! source has an output of 270 Ampère, maximum lifting height of 700 millime- the temperature at the plasma arc tres. The HIT trimming press has a press ranges between 10,000 and 50,000°C. capacity of 220 tons, a trimming length The advantages of plasma cutting are: of three metres and seven CNC-con- it is very fast and cost-effective, accu- trolled axles. Roland Schönleber is par- ticularly proud of the welding technol- ogy: “In total HIT owns five welding robots – a large one with two arms as well as one medium and three small ones with one arm respectively. This is extremely important for us as approx. half of our turnover is generated with robot welding.“ Beside a large number of small ma- chines, like for example bandsaws and a straightening press, HIT uses a machin- ing centre with a spindle capacity of 13 kW and 30 tool workplaces. “We attach considerable importance to the ergonomic equipment of the manual welding workstations“, Schön- leber points out. Torsten Stehfest adds: “The fresh air supply is particularly im- portant, but also the equipment with cranes to be able to handle the rather large components.“ HIT will soon be expanded consider- ably. So far approx 4,000 square metres Torsten Stehfest are under roof. In the future it will be three times this area. And there will also be investments in machinery. More im- racy, however, is in the millimetre range. portantly, a training workshop is being We use it for parts starting at a sheet planned. Roland Schönleber comments: size of 15 millimetres. Another proce- “So far it has not yet been possible in dure is autogenous flame cutting. Here Ronneburg to train young people. But the parts are pre-heated first. Then this is going to change soon. We are acetylene which is used as cutting gas planning to employ at least two con- heats up the sheet metal in untill it is struction mechanic apprentices per year liquid and is blown out downwards by of apprenticeship. This is to meet our the gas jet. This is supported by a strong own demand for skilled employees in oxygen jet which burns up carbon and the medium term. The regional demo- thus additional energy is released. The graphic change has not struck us yet ignition temperature of steel is approx. and we are considered to be a good em- 1,200°C, the melting temperature is ap- ployer.“ prox. 1,500°C. We also have a flat base Like for HORSCH in general, business laser for sheet metal with a maximum at HIT is very seasonal. Corresponding dimension of 3,000 x 1,500 x 25 millime- pre-plannings are meant to even this tre. The output of the laser source is five out a little bit. HIT mostly works with kW. Only approx. five per cent of the three-shift production. One component

17 terra Company insights News worldwide

hree current topics were on the terraHORSCH: Mr. Horsch, this year pated. Especially early sown wheat after agenda for our interview with many farmers in Germany were affected rapeseed was a concern but surprisingly Michael Horsch, founder and by the damages caused by the winter also varieties which in fact have been managing director of HORSCH killing of crops. How do you assess the considered to be winter hardy. Later TMaschinen GmbH: this year’s winter kill situation? sown wheat was less of a concern. phenomenon, the world record in plant- Michael Horsch: Heavy frost in mid ing maize and HORSCH’s activities in February resulted in considerably more terraHORSCH: In which regions did North America. damage than we had originally antici- you see damage?

18 Michael Horsch: It was all over Ger- ing plant, so for those who already a completely new factory near Fargo, many, but also in the east of France – grow maize anyway, but not for the North Dakota. We are planning to here also rapeseed -, Poland, the Czech rest. In case of large damage these invest an amount of 10 to 15 million Republic as well as parts of Hungary and farmers replaced winter corn by spring Dollars in the next 15 to 20 months. Romania. On our own farm in the Czech wheat or spring barley, but also by sun- However, the production site in Ando- Republic the middle sprout of rapeseed flowers. However, this cannot necessar- ver, South Dakota, will be kept for the was killed by frost. ily compensate for the loss yield. Many assembly of components. We assume farmers simply left their wheat in the that our number of employees will terraHORSCH: You always have quite fields. In this case, the populations are increase from a total of approx. 70 a good insight into what the interna- rather thin, have 150 to 200 shoots and employees at the moment to 200 to 250 tional situation is like. Will the farmers do not tiller any more. This will, how- employees within the next two years. be able to compensate for the bad yield ever not lead to maximum yields... expectations by higher prices? terraHORSCH: But the success Michael Horsch: It is, of course, much terraHORSCH: Our second topic is the depends on the situation of the Ameri- too early to make a statement. Howev- world record in planting maize that can farmers. Can you give us your assess- er, so far the MATIF-price level is stable, HORSCH has recently set together with ment? although May was ideal with regard to Claas. What is your opinion on that? Michael Horsch: The farming sector temperature and humidity. In Russia Michael Horsch: We simply wanted to in the US always benefitted considera- everything worked out well so far, there show that our Maestro is able to sow bly from maize and crop prices. But in was no dryness in spring. In the Ukraine, fast and accurately. To prove this, a return the subsidies are reduced and the relatively little rapeseed was sown. Win- world record attempt, of course, was a large farms get more support. Growth ter crops come off quite well. But in the fantastic marketing action. The soil con- in US farming is marked by the markets Ukraine considerably less winter wheat ditions indeed were not optimum, but and during the last years the impact of was sown this year as rotation strongly that’s agricultural practice. But this top this was disproportionately high. This is changes towards soya and maize. In performance cannot be transferred one why we are looking positively towards these countries I anticipate, as of today to one to other farms. In the end it is the future. We are well set and current- – a normal harvest. In North America, always logistics which is crucial for the ly we are working on developing our especially in North and South Dakota, output that is achieved. This is particu- dealer network. where ten years ago exclusively spring larly the case for large working widths. corn was grown, I noticed that they And this is what we wanted to show sowed almost only maize and soya. So I with this world record attempt. This is cannot believe that there will be a large why 448 hectares in 24 hours really were quantity of wheat from the US to influ- possible. ence the market. Canada did quite well. They grow more spring rapeseed which terraHORSCH: Let’s got to America: could very well have an influence on the HORSCH has two companies there, market. Maize has gained particular HORSCH Anderson and HORSCH North importance all over the world. So far America. Why? the populations are not too vigorous, Michael Horsch: In fact it is one com- but nevertheless I anticipate good yields pany, but on different sites. HORSCH for Europe and the US. I have been to Anderson is 13 years old and is focused Great Britain recently. Over there, it was on the northern and mid-West and quite dry at first, then humid. The pop- west-Canada – exclusively with tine seed ulation are a little bit on the thin side, drills (Airseeder). Rotation over there but they have developed in an optimum mainly consists (consisted!) of spring way and the root development is excel- crops and a little bit of soya and maize. lent. With regard to the further price As, however, the working methods of development for this year I am quite the farmers differ from climate zone to relaxed. But I would not speculate for climate zone (from federal state to fed- such jumps in prices like in 2007, but eral state) and we especially wanted to rather for price stability which is not push our Maestro for maize and soya, bad either. we two years ago founded another company, HORSCH NA, which is based terraHORSCH: Did you get the in Kansas. impression that as a reaction to the win- ter kill considerably more maize was terraHORSCH: How exactly is all this planted in Germany? organised? Michael Horsch: Not necessarily. Michael HORSCH: So far HORSCH Apart from biogas maize is only an Anderson worked in rented halls on sev- alternative for farmers who have a dry- eral sites. This year we will start to build

19 terra Company insights Researching, developing a nd testing under one roof

HORSCH circular test plant and the new ACI building

company that wants to suc- the ACI. What will it look like? terraHORSCH: What are the test ceed in the market needs the Michael Pirkenseer: It is located at the plants like? right products. So that western boundary of the company prem- Michael Pirkenseer: We constantly HORSCH will be able to launch ises. The advantage is that the sensitive increase our efforts for tests as the pow- Ainnovative and sophisticated machines prototype sector moves a little bit out of er of the tractors and, thus, the strain on even faster, a new research and develop- sight. Moreover, our test area is situated the machine increase more and more ment centre is being built at Sitzenhof at right behind the building so that we get rapidly. Therefore, we often have to the moment. terraHORSCH met Philipp very fast from the workshop to the field. build the test plants ourselves as they Horsch, managing director, R&D, as well The test hall alone consists of 2,000 simply do not exist, are too expensive or as Michael Pirkenseer, head of the test square metres. In addition, there is an the delivery times are too long. The tyre department, at the construction site. extension with offices for 100 employees. test rig is such an example. We built it At the moment 40 people are employed ourselves. Now we can test and docu- terraHORSCH: Mr Horsch, why did you in R & D. So we are well prepared for the ment on site and, if necessary, adjust the decide on building a new test centre? future and have enough room to extend conditions. To be for example able to Philipp Horsch: Research and develop- the team. With this new building HORSCH understand exactly how processes are ment are essential key factors for clearly points out that the R & D depart- HORSCH. Since 2005 we have been grow- ment will remain in Schwandorf. How- ing very dynamically and we have been ever, we will not concentrate the whole intensifying the test sector considerably. team here. The plant protection sector This includes the sectors test plant, pro- will, of course, remain in Landau at Leeb totype and metrology. And just now the and there is also an R&D office in the US construction of the new ACI research for machines that are needed over there. centre. ACI stands for Agricultural Centre So the strategy of site-specific develop- of Innovation. The new building has ment will be kept up. become necessary for lack of space, on the other hand we want to consolidate terraHORSCH: How much money does the departments development, test and HORSCH invest in the new building? technical documentation under one Philipp Horsch: In total, the invest- roof. ment sum amounts to five to six million Euro. Beside the buildings the laborato- terraHORSCH: Mr Pirkenseer, you ries and the test plants contribute con- were significantly involved in planning siderably to the costs. Philipp Horsch

20 Researching, developing a nd testing under one roof

functioning that are proceeding much faster than the eye can perceive, we have a high speed camera that can take 46,000 photos per second. Two years ago we started developing the electronic system for the machines ourselves. For the topics and requirements have become very complex. By working ourselves on cer- tain topics, like for example the electron- ic system, we can react much faster to requirements and work out solutions that are exactly like we need and like we want them. And distinguish ourselves from the competitors. Michael Pirkenseer in the new test hall terraHORSCH: In the age of computer animations, are tests to such an extent still necessary at all? cally. To get there, people have to dis- there is a pivotal point where a long arm Philipp Horsch: Of course, we can sim- cuss, compare notes and exchange expe- is attached that reaches the lane. The ulate a lot at the computer. But in the riences and opinions. Moreover, a test centre of the plant is set up in a small end it is the experience of the designing positive working atmosphere is impor- room on the support. Inside, there are engineer that counts most. However, to tant to be able to find good employees. the computers and the control functions. be able to make a clear statement, the An electric motor with 60 kW is fitted machine or the individual components terraHORSCH: You briefly mentioned under the support. It moves the wheels are put to test at the test plant. We then the new circular test plant. Normally, with which the whole frame – in total it do first measuring which are based on something like that is only known from weighs 13 tons – drives on the circular the practical work in the fields. In the tractor manufacturers. Why does lane. Due to the electric motors we can future, the machines have to run through HORSCH need something like that? adjust the speed steplessly. But this is not our new circular test plant. If all these Michael Pirkenseer: As a matter of about going at a speed of 50 km/h or stations have been passed successfully, fact, none of our competitors has such a faster, but about the occuring vibrations. the machines are tested in the field – a test plant. First and foremost, we want They result from the height of the test that must not be neglected by any to get better in a much faster way. A par- ground bumps and the operational means. In case there are problems at the ticularly large number of damages occur speed so that the speed may be consider- individual stations, they will, of course, during road transport because of the ably lower. A tractor dummy is attached be solved and the machine has to run frequent vibrations. This requires an to the arm. This dummy is necessary as in through the test cycle anew. In the new exact analysis. In the past, an employee the long run standard tractors would not test laboratories we are able to take the had to get on the tractor and cover 1,000 be able to stand the strains. All machines measuring made in the field one-to-one kilometres on the road. That was expen- can be attached to this arm whether they and reproduce them realistically. Thus, sive, time-consuming and also danger- are three-point or trailed machines. Safe- we do not depend on the weather and ous. With the new circular test plant we ty, of course, is guaranteed. In case some we save development time. can adjust various modes and thus simu- part of the machine comes loose, the late permanent vibrations. The result is complete plant stops immediately. More terraHORSCH: How closely do the that we get a time lapse with factor 100. importantly the whole area is surround- design department and the test depart- We cannot yet give absolute statements. ed by a fence in a radius of 50 metre. This ment work together? To be able to do that we still need some even allows for testing sprayers with Philipp Horsch: The largest part of the more years of experience. 36-m booms. new building belongs to the test depart- ment. The fact that the offices of the terraHORSCH: What does the circular terraHORSCH: When will you move designing engineers are directly adjacent test plant look like and how does it into the new building? to the test building allows for short ways work? Philipp Horsch: We will be able to and excellent cooperation. For that pur- Michael Pirkenseer: First of all it is a work in the new laboratories before har- pose we also set up a central and open concrete lane with a medium diametre vest season 2012. The offices will be meeting area where people can meet of 50 metre where metal plates with dif- ready end of August. and discuss for example at lunchtime. ferent heights are screwed on at differ- Innovation does not happen automati- ent spacing’s. In the middle of the circle

21 terra Company insights

Horst Keller

Gerhard Springs Growth needs manpower

he HORSCH Company is head- our production site in Ronneburg we company by means of qualification ing towards 1000 employees. To have been realising that a long-term schemes. For senior employees we have do human resource work with human resource strategy has been to create a general framework to keep this increase, has become impos- neglected. More production sites and them in the work process for a longer Tsible. This is why the position of a head branches at home and abroad with cur- time as the human factor will be become of human resources has been created. rently more than 900 employees require a “scarce good”! This, too, is a wide terraHORSCH talked to Horst Keller, a considerably more efficient human field of action for Mr Springs. managing director and commercial di- resources strategy. In our opinion, this rector, and the new head of human re- is the only way to convey the culture terraHORSCH: Mr Springs, now it is sources, Gerhard Springs, about strate- and values of our company as well as your task to find the suitable employ- gies, growth and objectives in human standardised personnel structures to all ees. How did you get in touch with resource management. sites and to all employees. And these HORSCH and what is your professional requirements cannot be met at the indi- background? terraHORSCH: Mr Keller, what do you vidual sites. To do this we need a head Gerhard Springs: As I am from expect from the new position of a head of human resources who is responsible Amberg, about 25 kilometres north of human resources? exclusively for the whole sector of west of Schwandorf, I already knew of Horst Keller: For more than 10 years, human resource work. Of course, we, HORSCH. Due to my initial training as a HORSCH’s turnover has been growing too, notice that the job market for truck mechanic I am familiar with large by an average of almost 20 per cent per skilled employees gets tighter and tight- machines. After my training I studied year. Especially last year we experienced er and that it becomes more and more religious pedagogy combined with a an enormous advance with a turnover difficult to find qualified personnel. graduate degree in education. I special- increase from 103 to 165 million Euro. And this problem will only get worse in ised in employment and business opera- The result of this development is that the years to come. Therefore, our com- tions. After my studies I worked in the requirements concerning our struc- pany will have to take over tasks which human resources in the automotive sec- tures and thus our human resources previously have still been covered by the tor where I could gather also interna- development have considerably government. It will for example be our tional experience. I decided to change increased, too. Up to now we still man- social task to train young people who to HORSCH due to the interesting job. It aged to handle the recruitment of new after school are not fit enough for an is quite an interesting challenge for me employees mostly locally at the produc- apprenticeship, to introduce them to a to be able to organise the human tion sites and also within the depart- working environment and to offer them resource processes of a growing com- ments. But already since the opening of a chance for a career within the HORSCH pany and, thus, to contribute signifi-

22 cantly to the further success of this com- say: “I want to work with HORSCH.“ internet. Although this is advocated by pany. the media, I consider this as dubious and terraHORSCH: Does this apply to all as highly invasive. This is not the way we terraHORSCH: What are your exact HORSCH sites? work and cannot be the basis of a trust- tasks? Horst Keller: Of course it does. For worthy and long cooperation. Gerhard Springs: Basically, I am the attractiveness of a company is no It is also very important to be able to responsible for all matters of the human longer measured only by salary. The sal- put up with a working cycle marked by resources sector. This is, of course, a ary structure, of course, has to be rea- seasonal variations. broad field and the operational part sonable and fair, but to be an attractive We attach particular importance to cannot be handled by me alone. During employer a lot of other important fac- the fact that all employees are able to the first months I took the opportunity tors will have to be developed in the deal and identify with our mission state- to get a general idea. Thus I am able to future. In the years to come we will ment. We openly discuss this in the job develop a clear picture in which sector, expand all our sites and branches. In interview. action has to be taken. One task is the Ronneburg and at our new site in Lan- strategic development of apprentice- dau/Isar for the plant protection sector terraHORSCH: Do you have an idea ship and the creation of a structure. One we will mainly expand the production where HORSCH will be in five years? step that will be done in the near future of our machines, whereas at our head- Horst Keller: Of course, we are think- is to set up a training centre at our pro- quarters in Schwandorf we mainly have ing intensely about the question where duction site in Ronneburg as well as in to push the sectors R&D, service, mar- we will be in five years and we are look- Landau/Isar. keting and general administration. ing towards the future with a very pos- To be able to cover our manpower With regard to our branches abroad we itive feeling. Farming and the necessary requirements in the long term, we as a clearly concentrate on expanding the agricultural equipment are sectors with young company have to increase our sales team. The requirements of the a promising future and optimum pros- popularity beyond the agrarian sector. individual sites and branches differ con- pect. This is why we make considerable Therefore, the quality of the training siderably, but we want to introduce and investments to expand our existing mar- has to be guaranteed and convincing maintain certain standards which are kets and to develop new ones. At the due to excellent results. This is the only identical everywhere and correspond to same time, we are launching new large way to promote the company with the company culture. product lines with single grain seed human resource marketing activities. In drills and the plant protection equip- addition, there are the forecasts where Gerhard Springs: Due to the different ment. It is our objective to generate in HORSCH sees itself in ten years and , educational systems in the countries these new segments market shares sim- which competences and qualifications where our branches are situated we ilar to those of our current segments. are required within the company. We have to use different approaches for the And if we and all our employees are have to develop continuously the quali- training and qualification strategies, doing our homework well, there will be fication of our employees. This is what but still with a standardised, corporate a good chance to grow by another 50 to characterises an attractive employer. objective. As a consequence we have to 70 per cent in the course of the next five intensify and expand the contact to years. And this might lead to an increase terraHORSCH: How are you going to schools and university in many coun- of the number of employees to approx. present HORSCH as an attractive tries. In the future, we will also establish 1,300 for the whole company. And this employer? in-house trainee programs as well as is a quite interesting task and challenge Gerhard Springs: In addition to the development programs for junior for the head of human resource, isn’t it? qualification of our employees great employees and executives. We will, importance will for example be attached thus, better be able to cover our require- Gerhard Springs: Yes, of course it is. to the subject family and career. Along ments for skilled employees and execu- with an adequate salary, company cul- tives. ture will play an important role. How do we treat each other, how much respon- terraHORSCH: What are the charac- sibility is taken on by every single teristics of a perfect HORSCH employee? employee for his immediate working Gerhard Springs: It is, of course, not environment? With the company grow- that simple to describe that. However, ing constantly and the number of with regard to our constant growth we employees increasing more and more have to ask ourselves which employees we also do not want to neglect the we will need in the future and how we problems and concerns of employees can recruit the appropriate employees who have got in trouble. This is part of who will fit in with our core staff. the HORSCH culture and we will carry Professional skills are important. on maintaining it in exactly this way. They are a basic requirement. This Even in the future all male and female shows in the career part of the curricu- colleagues shall be proud of working at lum vitae and in the job references. We HORSCH and interested applicants shall do not use the social networks on the

23 terra Machinery test

With hydraulic depth control (optional) the two front sensing wheels, too, automatically adapt in height With or without roller

Practical test: Some insights into the increase. Therefore if the conditions dic- stop. Thus, it is not so easy anymore to practical efficiency of the new tate then the roller may be removed, if adjust the working depth while driving medium-weight cultivator with necessary, by means of undoing six – at least if you want to work more integrated chassis and traction control flanges. This was not yet possible for deeply – or you work without clips rely- system. our test model. The levelling discs as ing on a constant visual check of the well as the six depth control cylinders depth scale. To avoid leaving tracks remain on the cultivator, it really is only when working without roller, there is he design engineers attached a the roller that is removed. one tine of the fourth row behind each chassis with a large axle to the Without the roller, the chassis to- of the two tyres - good. frame of the Terrano FM. Due gether with the depth control wheels to this front position the man- keeps the Terrano FM at the correct The results Touverability is excellent. We were, how- depth. To adjust the working depth, you With the Terrano FM we worked on ever, not able to check whether heavy have, however, to get off the tractor to a stubble field with varying soil condi- following tools might cause a negative be able to put the Horsch-typical clips tions – from mild, slightly wet soil to vertical load. The wheels have a large on the two chassis cylinders as a depth wet loamy spots. Due to the changing diameter and are inflated. The AS-pro- file is remarkable – it may not be “trendy”, but it is functional. For the centre chassis can be used for depth control when the roller has been re- moved – due to its excellent self-clean- ing effect and the intensive connection with the soil the AS-profile is perfectly suitable for this task. And this is what leads us to one of the main features of the FM design: The cultivator can op- tionally be used with or without a roller. This is more and more required by farm- ers who want to create a rough autumn seedbed with the cultivator. A heavy roller would be obstructive, especially in wet conditions and on clay soils. Moreo- The 21 tines are mounted symmetrically. The tine spacing is 28 cm, the working width of the ver the danger of water erosion might wing coulters is 37 cm.

24 Technical data HORSCH Terrano 6 FM increase the stability of the individual Praise and criticism elements. Moreover, there are now Working width 5.90 m Working quality: Very good mixing, excel- ridges which the rings can hook into in Frame 3 parts, hydr. foldable lent levelling and high clearance. The con- case of stones to avoid bending. Design 4-bar solidation work done by the double RollFlex packer begins approx. 3 to 4 cm below the Maximum working depth approx. 30 cm soil surface. Number of tines 21 Quick summary Handling: The optional hydraulic depth con- Tine spacing 28 cm The Horsch Terrano FM is a medium- trol increases the ease of adjustment. The weight, 4-bar cultivator. Thus, it is on Tine spacing in a row 112 cm leveling discs only have to be adjusted in Release force stone protection max. 570 kg one level with the Köckerling Vector, case of more considerable modifications of Frame height 75 cm the Väderstad Cultus and the Amazone the working depth. To avoid jamming, the Diameter of packer 50 or 59 cm Centaur Super. In this line it is at the mo- adjusters have to be adjusted alternately. Weight 6,800 kg ment the only one with a removable Power requirement: Low hp requirement Transport width 3.00 m roller which can be used to create a despite a narrow tine spacing of 28 cm. For a working width of 5.90 m, however, you Hydraulic connections 3 x double acting rough autumn seedbed. Without the Hp requirement from 240 PS should not use a tractor under 300 hp. At a roller the depth is controlled by two working depth of 15 cm downwards 350 hp transport wheels which are not to smear are the minimum requirement. even in wet conditions due to the AS- Functionality: Flexible use due to removable weather in the summer of 2011 the profile. roller. Wide range of working depths, but in case of deep loosening the tight tine stubbles already were quite brittle. The spacing increases the power requirement. tractor we used was a Challenger MT765 with 355 hp which allowed for going at a speed of 14 km/h for a working depth of approx. 10 cm. At a working depth of approx 15 to 20 cm the soil type allowed for a speed of 7 to 10 km/h – even with wings. Horsch indicates a hp require- ment for the Terrano 6 FM starting at 240 hp. This is sufficient on light, sandy soils for working depths of up to 15 cm. On heavier soils you should use a tractor with 350 hp. Those who want to loosen the soil at a working depth of 25 or 30 cm, should better use a tractor with 400 to 450 hp for a working width of 6 m – that sounds a lot, but about 70 hp per metre working width is a standard re- quirement for loosening. We were highly pleased with the re- sult. The incorporation of the straw on the surface was very even, the soil lev- eling was excellent. We liked the fact that the double RollFlex packer leaves a slightly opener, looser surface. The com- Some details of the open double RollFlex packer have been improved to improve stability and paction effect begins at a depth of ap- the cultivator can be used universally prox. 3 to 4 cm depending on the soil and was completely sufficient under the test conditions. We do not know, how- Overall impression ever, if its mode of operation can also Our first impression of the Horsch Terrano FM is very positive. Despite a comparatively low cope with very heavy soils with minute- frame height the 4-bar cultivator has an excellent clearance as there is a lot of room between soil character. On these soils the Farm- the rows. Mixing and levelling are flawless. Two rollers are optionally available for consolida- Flex packer with closed V-ring profile tion. The hydraulic depth control (optional) works exactly, but without a roller it can only be might be preferable. used to a limited extent. Due to the integrated chassis tight turning on the headlands does not cause any problems. In the future Horsch will offer a lower link linkage for smaller work- ing widths. Due to the widely extended tine rows even uneven fields can be cultivated in a What we noticed additionally: uniformly shallow way. With wings the overlapping on both tines is 4.5 cm resp. on both • Instead of annular plates there are sides. gear wheels in the middle for levelling. This is to avoid ridges as the discs con- Due to our short use of the machine we do not know what effect the hydraulic traction verge at this point. power reinforcement really has. We are, however, sure that the effect for standard tractors will be more significant due to the design than for caterpillar tractors, trac-tractors or articu- • The design of the RollFlex rollers lated tractors. has been slightly revised. A profile is to

25 terra Farm report 1,000 tons per employee

The farm SC TCE 3 Brazi Insula Mare a Brăila in Romania is the largest agricul- tural company in the European Union. It farms a total of 65,000 hectares, 57,000 of them on one site. Dr. Lucian Buzdugan is the manager of the agricultural company. He talked to terraHORSCH about his cultivation concept.

he farm SC TCE 3 Brazi Insula Mare a Brăila in Romania is the largest agricultural company in the European Union. It farms a Ttotal of 65,000 hectares, 57,000 of them on one site. Dr. Lucian Buzdugan is the manager of the agricultural company. He talked to terraHORSCH about his cul- tivation concept. “It is our primary objective to first of all increase the yields in such a way that we harvest 1,000 tons of crops per em- ployee and at the same time reduce the diesel consumption to under 50 litres per hectare. This can only be achieved by using agricultural machines with Dr. Lucian Buzdugan is the manager of the agricultural company. He talked to terraHORSCH large working widths which, in addi- about his cultivation concept. tion, can carry out several working pro- cesses in one single pass. As HORSCH is a manufacturer with a long lasting ex- excellently and depth capillarity is re- centimetres and we sow at a depth of perience in this sector, we got in contact stored. Thus, crops like rapeseed, wheat, 2.5 to 3 centimetres. Two tine rows with each other. winter or spring barley are optimally loosen the soil and form a ridge. Rape- For mulch cultivating we use the cul- supplied with water. With the Optipack seed is sown into a deeply loosened tivator Tiger 8 AS which has been spe- SD this works so well even on heavy soils strip which has been freed from harvest cially adapted to our requirements. We that all our eleven Tigers are equipped residues and clods. More importantly, it combine it with our seed waggon SW with this packer. is possible to apply fertiliser at two 17000 so that beside loosening, incor- For sowing we use a Pronto 12 DC depths. We provide a starter depot of poration of harvest residues and the which we appreciate very much due to ten to 15 per cent of the total fertiliser consolidation of the soil, the Tiger can its extraordinary capacity. In two ten- quantity in the germination area, the also apply fertilizer via a piping and fer- hour working shifts we can sow approx. remaining quantity is placed at a depth tiliser system (similar to the focus) we 200 hectares. of 15 to 20 centimetres. Thus, the rape- place phosphoric or nitrogenous ferti- Like I have already pointed out the seed root is attracted to grow down- liser this way. The latter, however, only saving of diesel is extremely important wards as rooting is crucial for a good if nitrogen is used in a stabilised form. for our farm. The Focus TD is a key ma- yield especially in dry periods. We hope What I like about the Tiger is that chine and the trend-setting technology to benefit a lot from fertilisers with sta- much more moisture remains in the soil of strip cultivation. Thus, we are able to bilised nitrogen. We, then, would be than when using a plough or a disc har- sow rapeseed after wheat in only one able to apply half of or even all fertiliser row. The loosened soil is consolidated pass. We work with a row spacing of 36 directly while sowing, as in regions with

26 dry springs there is a risk that nitrogen ably is the personal commitment of the Quick facts: Romania that is applied on the surface reaches two brothers, Michael and Philipp Official language: Romanian the roots too late or even not at all. Horsch. As they know the needs of soil Capital: Bucharest Urea for example looses up to 50 per and plant, they do anything to find Total area: 238.391 km² cent of the effective nitrogen after 15 technical solutions for an optimum Agricultural area/arable land: days without rain and temperatures of plant development.“ 135.460 km²/87.210 ha more than 12 degree Celsius. Population: 19.042.936 Population density: We like working with HORSCH as this 90,6 inhabitants per km² company has a dynamic that is unique EU membership: since 2007 in the market. What stands out remark- HORSCH techno- logy in Lithuania

irectly adjacent to the motorway A1 from Kaunas to Klaipėda near Raseiniai there are a lot of grain silos. This is where the Dfarm headquarters of the UAB Agra Cor- poration is situated. The agricultural en- terprise was founded in 1992 and is growing wheat, rapeseed, barley and legumes on an area of about 5,600 hec- terra Farm report

tare. The owner is the AGRA company for agricultural development and in- vestment based in Vienna which also owns farms in Latvia and in the Ukraine. The company thinks internationally. Thus, for example the website of the farms is in Lithuanian, Latvian, German and English language. The managing director of the Agra Corporation is Alvydas Rauluškevičius. He employs twelve people for agricul- tural work and six people in administra- tion. He knows the problems German farmers are currently facing with regard to winter killings only too well. Already last year the better part of the winter crops was damaged by frost. 1,000 hec- tare of wheat and 300 hectare of rape- seed had to be sown again. Otherwise, the conditions for farming in the past years were good. There was enough rainfall and the harvest conditions were rather wet. Rauluškevičius had an aver- age harvest of 4.5 tons of wheat per hectare. As the conditions on his farm vary extremely – from very sandy to very heavy – the farm manager relies on explains. As seed drills he uses an 8m sign is logical thus leading to optimum HORSCH technology. The reason: “It Airseeder and a 6m Pronto TD. More work results.“ cannot only handle all soils, but also all importantly he has a DuoDrill attached The structures in Lithuania vary ex- working depths“, Alvydas Rauluškevičius to a HORSCH Tiger. The DuoDrill is used tremely. Medium-sized farms consist of for sowing fine seeds (e.g. rapeseed, 600 to 1,000 hectare, large farms even mustard, phacelia, grass). Due to the of 7,000 hectare. But there are also combination of cultivation and sowing smaller farms so that the whole range in one pass the number of passes can be from three to twelve meter working reduced. For cultivation he uses a Tiger width are sought after. 6 LT and a Tiger 5 AS for working at a depth between 20 and 40 centimeters. The main tractors are Fendt, the largest tractor is a Case IH STX 500. For eight years the farm has been working com- pletely without a plough. Nerijus Zukauskas is the HORSCH representative in Lithuania. He is very satisfied with the turnover develop- ment in his country. “In 2011, the ma- Quick facts: Lithuania chinery turnover was between three Official langauge: Lithuanian and 3.5 million Euro. In the past years Capital: Vilnius we were always able to increase his fig- Total area: 65.301 km² ure by about 15 per cent. In some sec- Agricultural area/arable land: tors, like for example the three-bar 31.510 km²/ 28.660 km² cultivator sector, we are even the mar- Population: 3.192.833 ket leader. “The HORSCH top seller in Population density: Lithuania is the Pronto DC seed drill in 52 inhabitants per km² six or eight metre working width and Independence: 11. March 1990 from the Terrano FX, a cultivator for shallow the former Sovjet Union stubble cultivation or for a cultivation Government: depth of up to 20 cm. According to Zu- Constitutional republic kauskas HORSCH does not stand for (President: Mrs Dalia Grybauskaite) mere machines, but rather for technol- EU membership: since 2004 Alvydas Rauluškevičius ogy: “The farmers know that the de-

28 Practical experience terra

A Titan in Sibiria

he large farm Solyanoje in the country that would have to be covered Tucanos. An unloading speed of 18 t/min south west of Sibiria is situated in case of spare part deliveries, the reli- allows for filling the Kamaz including approx. 110 kilometers south of ablity of the Titan 34 UW was an ex- the trailer within a few minutes – with Omsk, the capital of the region. tremely important purchase criteria.“ exactly 25 tons“, the engineer says. The TOne year ago the first HORSCH auger At the moment, Solyanoje farms a trailer could take a little bit more, but waggon sold in Russia was put into use total area of 12,000 hectares. „Despite the meticulous expert does not allow it at this farm. the common cliché that exists in Europe for a good reason. “Otherwise the “Last year in August our HORSCH that Siberia is more or less a wilderness, Kamaz would be overloaded! That will dealer Omsk-Diesel invited us to the we are a modern agricultural com- not work out in the long run“, Nikolaj HORSCH Field Day that took place in pany“, Nikolaj points out. “We are explains. Chaplygin in Central Russia (see article equipped with state-of-the-art Western A scale which is clearly visible from in terraHORSCH 03/2011). He told us technology. Especially machines and the tractor cab shows the opening angle that something completely new would equipment from Germany are still very of the hydraulic slide in the auger wag- be shown there“, tells Nikolaj highly appreciated. For harvest technol- gon. The driver, thus, can control the Koctscherga, the managing engineer of ogy we completely rely on Claas. The crop flow and interrupt the unloading the farm. “For us in Siberia 4,000 kilom- quartet consisting of four Tucano 430 process in time. eters is no distance at all, so I spontane- combines work perfectly. Now they get The trucks are always loaded at the ously decided to fly there. I was very additional support from the HORSCH field boundaries. “Since we have bought impressed by the event itself, especially auger waggon which is drawn by a the auger waggon I do no longer allow by the extensive machinery demonstra- CLAAS Axion 850. Thus, the effective for the heavy Kamazes driving on the tions. As, at that time, harvest was due threshing times of the combines can be field. Despite the dry climate in our re- to start any day, I was particularly inter- increased“, he adds. “They work non- gion the weather at the time of harvest ested in the auger waggon HORSCH Ti- stop and discharge while driving.“ often is rather unsettled. The deep tyre tan 34 UW. Even I as a technician with a To transport the crop, the farm uses tracks of a fully loaded truck can leave university degree have not been able to the Kamaz tipping trailers with addi- the soil structure seriously damaged. As find any weak spot on this machine: the tional trailers which are very common in we almost exclusively farm our fields design of the auger wagon is stable and Russia. The admissible total weight of with direct sowing, we had to put up simple at the same time with few mov- these trucks is 25 tons. „Due to its capac- with these damages in the past“, Nikolaj ing, but very reliable large components. ity of 34 cubic metres the Titan can take points out. „The large tyres of the Ti- Because of the large distances in our the grain hopper contents of all four tan’s telescopic axle run in an offset pat-

29 terra Practical experience

tern outside the tractor tracks. This pre- without using any fertiliser. The reason answers, “rather a wish: I wish that serves the soil and adds to the low for this is not an agronimic one, but a every large farm will be able to benefit horsepower requirement of the auger mere technical one: previously the farm from the advantages of this unique ma- waggon“. „The simple hopper design had no seed drill that could also apply chine to the same extent as we do“. of the Titan with its funnel shape and fertiliser. The drilling of one crop nor- In the meantime, Solyanoje also with only one powerful auger conveyor mally starts right after the harvest of bought a HORSCH Sprinter 15 NT with makes cleaning very easy“, Nikolaj adds. the other. the possibility of underground fertilisa- In Solyanoje spring wheat (yields ap- Finally we wanted to know if the en- tion as an option. It is to be used in prox. 2.5 t/ha), spring barley (3.2 t/ha), gineer has any proposals for the im- spring with a Claas Xerion 3300 (305 spring rape (1.8 t/ha), oats (1.6 t/ha), provement or modification of the ma- hp). sunflowers (2.0 t/ha) and lucerne are chine for the HORSCH designing grown. The indicated yields are achieved engineers. “Not a single one“, Nikolaj The Titan – main player in a well organised harvest!

ean Pierre Malfait and powerful combine – this would also So that they would no longer have his son, farmers and mean that five additional tractors to transport the crops on the road they business men in the would have to be at our disposal… The decided to work with the OS (Organis- area Marne, are well costs would be exorbitant !” He adds: Jknown for their constant “more importantly, we would have desire to innovate. With their had to hire three seasonal workers own fields, the rented fields and the each summer to support our four per- fields they farm under contract every manent employees”. year which total approx. 1000 hectares He estimates that with the auger have to be harvested, inlcuding 650 hec- waggon you can avoid these additional tares of wheat. To reduce harvest costs costs and at the same time avoid the un- without extending the duration of the necessary wear of the tractors which harvest – approx. 15 days, the Malfait would only be used to pull the trailers. family intensively discussed the auger Thus, the Mailfaits were able to avoid waggon topic and finally bought the buying two additional tractors and trail- HORSCH auger waggon Titan 34 UW. ers (the trailers that are already at the terraHORSCH talked to them about farm will be kept and used for addi- their experiences. tional business in public works). One of We assumed the following, Joseph, the four farm employees could be re- the youngest son, told us: “as our leased from the harvest activities and fields are very scattered and and some could exclusively take care of stubble are quite far from our yards, at least 5 cultivation. Thus, 1000 hectares could trailers would have been necessary to easily be harvested with only three peo- allow to cope with buying a more ple. Jean Pierre Malfait and his son Baptiste

30 mes Stockeurs = corn traders with stor- age facilities). “We are working very closely with them to guarantee that the trucks are in the right place at the right time. We have to inform the truck driver regularly about our position and about any incident: break-downs, weather, moving to another field” Bap- tiste, the eldest son, explains. The ad- vantage of the Titan is that it has the same capacity as an articulated trailer (34 m3) and can discharge very quickly With a capacity that corresponds to that of an articulated truck (34 m³) the discharge time of the (18 t/min, thus less than two minutes). Titan is less than 2 minutes. The telescopic axle allows for the tyres of the auger waggon to run outside the tractor tracks, thus reducing ground pressure. Of course, this reduces the idle times of The large-dimension low-pressure tyres add to the preservation of the soil regardless of the the trucks at the field boundaries enor- weather conditions. mously. The auger waggon transports the harvest in the field where it discharges Also the optionally available weighing are looking forward to the beginning of both combines successively. When it is system which allows for tracking exactly the harvest season 2012. full, it loads the crops on the trucks of the yield of every field convinced the the traders which wait at the field SAS Malfait. boundaries. Due to the powerful com- Baptiste continues : “Despite the bines and a Titan that discharges very common opinion, an auger waggon is quickly the trucks go non-stop. The driv- not only used during the harvest.” He ing time of the Titan driver is optimised adds: “The Titan is versatile. I use it for at its best – contrary to a conventional the seed and fertiliser supply at the time harvest. He determines the rhythm of of sowing.” the harvest, he is one of the “key fig- With such an equipment the three ures” of the harvest. passionate farmers are very relaxed and The trader who, of course, also ben- efits from such a way of working pro- Harvest transport costs vides his trucks at a very reasonable price. Whereas he normally has to use Initial situation Necessary for smooth functioning: 5 tractors and 5 trailers part of his trucks for transporting the crops between his silos, with this coop- Costs per hour Costs per 12 working hours eration he can directly determine the 1 Tractor 30 €/h 360,00 € destination of the product and, thus, 1 Trailer 10 €/h 120,00 € reduce the transport costs. Diesel at 0,65 €/l and 6 l/h 3,9 €/h 46,80 € “There were several reasons why we 1 Driver 20 €/h 240,00 € decided to buy a Titan” Jean-Pierre goes Total costs per day 766,80 € on explaining, “First of all due to the soil-conserving characteristics and its Costs for 15 harvest days and 5 tractors 57.510,00 € stability which are due to the telescopic Remuneration for optimised delivery -5.144,00 € axle and the large-dimension low-pres- Total costs per year 52.366,00 € sure tyres (900/60 R32) it is suitable for all conditions, even on wet soils! Impor- tantly, the Titan is very easy to clean, as Auger Waggon Project Road transport with OS only a small quantity of grains remains in the hopper. All you need to do is to Costs per hour Costs per 12 working hours open an easily accessible slide to empty 1 Auger Waggon 30 €/h 360,00 € the hopper completely”. One single au- 1 Tractor 30 €/h 360,00 € ger with a diameter of 600 mm which is Diesel at 0,65 €/l and 11 l/h 7,15 €/h 85,80 € situated in the conical bottom area of 1 Driver 20 €/h 240,00 € the hopper reduces the breaking of the Total costs per day 1.045,80 € grains, but all the same guarantees maximum efficiency. Costs for 15 harvest days 15.687,00 € Low maintenance requirements and Estimated interests for financing 1.460,00 € the tarpaulin which can be fixed quickly Transport with truck 4.000,00 € and easily in case of changing weather Total costs per year 21.147,00 € are advantages that convinced them. Source: SAS Malfait

31 Inside HORSCH

From left to right: Cornelia Horsch, H. Keller, M. Pirkenseer, S. Koch, P. Mercier, M. Jobst, K. Schmid, C. Sittl, C. Louis, R. Schönleber, B. Miksch, M. Obermaier, Michael Horsch, M. Maierhofer, Philipp Horsch, T. Leeb

HORSCH staff meeting and end-of-year celebration

he staff meeting and the end-of- new development centre at Sitzenhof years of outstanding commitment year celebration of the HORSCH and the almost doubling of the site in within the HORSCH company. Maschinen GmbH in 2011, too, Ronneburg. Philipp Horsch informed At the following end-of-year celebra- was a logistical masterpiece. about the intended machinery innova- tion the employees had a lot of time to TNearly all employees from all over Eu- tions which will be made to be well pre- chat. The entertaining evening with rope met in the ACC (Amberger Con- pared for the upcoming important plenty of good food offered a lot of op- gress Centre) in Amberg on the 15th of shows all over the world. Michael portunity to meet with and talk with December 2011. With a total of 650 Horsch committed all employees to do their colleagues – what contributes to people the congress centre was fully oc- their best in the stressful production pe- the team spirit and especially allows for cupied. Colleagues from the production riod that is sure to come in 2012, too, to getting to know the numerous new col- sites Ronneburg and Landau/Ober- allow for the intended growth of the leagues. As usual there also was a show pöring arrived by bus. Most of the em- company and to continue to create new and entertainment program. Constan- ployees from abroad travelled by air. jobs (735 in 2011, thus 55 per cent more tin Horsch very spontaneously agreed to The whole event was translated in Eng- than in 2010). perform live on stage with his band af- lish and French. After the staff meeting ten long-time ter his mother Cornelia Horsch ex- At the staff meeting that took place HORSCH employees were honoured for pressed her wish that she dreamt of in the early afternoon the HORSCH their company anniversaries. Mathias having a HORSCH band one day. The managing directors Michael and Philipp Maierhofer (stocks) has been working Upper Palatinate A Cappella band Vocal Horsch and Horst Keller gave a forecast for HORSCH for 25 years and at that 5 performed twice making the audience on 2012 and looked back on the past time was the first apprentice. The man- clap along and, thus, was one of the months. For the first time Theo Leeb, agement board presented the passion- highlights of the event. managing director of HORSCH Leeb Ap- ate craftsman with a gift voucher Another highlight of the evening plication Systems GmbH which was amounting to 500 Euro to be used for was a quiz for all employees with ques- founded in 2011, held a speech, too. He his hobby. Jürgen Hoehlig (welding de- tions about the HORSCH company and was very glad that the Leeb team and partment), Markus Jobst (incoming a lottery for charity purposes. In total the existing HORSCH team have joined goods), Sebastian Koch (production de- 3,000 lottery tickets were sold – the forces and become one team in such a partment), Corinne Louis (HORSCH money was doubled by the HORSCH smooth and cordial way. Horst Keller France), Patrice Mercier (HORSCH Foundation and donated to MEDA. explained that 2011 was the most suc- France), Bettina Miksch (marketing), MEDA currently supports 10,000 fami- cessful year in the company’s history Martin Obermaier (head of service lies and small farmers in Ethiopia with and showed a lot of interesting figures HORSCH Leeb), Michael Pirkenseer (test credits to buy new technology to be to proove this. The yield continued to department), Konrad Schmid (care- able to stand on their own feet again be excellent and the company’s profits taker) and Christian Sittl (head of in- and to manage without any help from will be used for investments like the coming goods) were honoured for 10 outside.

32 Apprenticeship Racing Day 2012

t the beginning of the year the got a lot of information about laser apprentices of the HORSCH technology and sheet metal forming. At Maschinen GmbH went on an the end of the tour the hosts had pre- excursion. pared a snack for the groups. AIn the morning they visited Quadrus In the afternoon they moved on to Lasertechnik in Schmidgaden. For more the Prokart Raceland in Wackersdorf than ten years Quadrus has been one of where the “HORSCH-Apprenticeship HORSCH’s most important suppliers. Cup 2012“ was carried out. After some One of the managing directors of the introductory instructions the appren- 190 employee company, Werner Prü- tices were allowed to enter the race fling, and the head of training, Dominik track and the qualifying started. In the Bösl received the apprentices. On a two- real race the male apprentices prevailed hour tour through the company they and ranked first. Peter Zenger, first-year

apprentice, was third and Roman Fleis- chmann, also first-year apprentice, was second. Andreas Steinbauer, third-year apprentice, ranked first. At the following informal get-to- gether the idea was born to build a kart. Thus the project “HORSCH Racing-Kart“ was brought into being and is already in full swing. So next year we will per- haps already start with our own “HORSCH Kart“.

Girls‘ Power at HORSCH

female pupils from various types fitted into a complete machine. The Company founder Michael Horsch and of school – grammar school, sec- girls showed great commitment when his wife Cornelia, head of marketing and ondary modern school, second- they were allowed to build a flower- head of training for the commercial sec- ary general school – visited shaped cradle for a mobile phone as a tor, joined the girls in the HORSCH FITZ 17HORSCH on the occasion of the Girls‘ Day souvenir. training centre for lunch. and got an insight into the HORSCH work- ing environment. Human resources man- ager Gerhard Springs, head of training An- ton Grauvogl and training supervisor Christian Graf welcomes the girls. After a video presentation and guided tour through the company there were parallel workshops where the partici- pants could gain first experiences in practical work. In the new logistic centre the girls could see live the material flow processes. They could follow the parts from the ar- rival of the goods via the computerised high rack storage area to production and the shipment of the goods. In the assembly hall they watched how these parts were first assembled in the pre-assembly area to small compo- nent groups before they were finally From left to right: the participants of the Girls‘ Day, Christian Graf, Anton Grauvogl

33 terra Inside HORSCH

Training – a key to further success

s a consequence of the consid- To be able to cope with this growth the future is and will be to the in firm erable success of the company in the future, the need for further qual- training of the junior employees. No the whole HORSCH group is ified and motivated employees will in- other measure is as efficient and has more and more appreciated as crease. HORSCH cannot only rely on re- such a high hit rate as own training. Aan attractive employer. HORSCH is a cruiting new employees on the open Considering all this, HORSCH is going to well-respected, innovative and success- market. Particularly the demographic build up and continuously expand train- ful company in the agrarian sector! development in the regions where the ing at its sites Landau/ Isar, Ronneburg But this does not happen by chance. HORSCH sites are located will be a seri- and Schwandorf. All employees contribute assiduously to ous challenge in the future. the company’s success. Thus, HORSCH as A key to find qualified employees a company can grow successfully step by and thus to go on guaranteeing the in- step. novative and competitive capacity for

The first move has been made

New training workshop at Sitzenhof is the training program for production operational mechanics and especially for construc- tion mechanics. Machines for sheet o get to know each other better, metal forming and another turning the management board invited lathe will complete the machinery for the HORSCH apprentices to the time being. have lunch with them. After- In addition, we will set up a small as- Twards they all visited the new training sembly area which will allow for assem- workshop at Sitzenhof. bling small machines, like for example a At that time the workshop had not Terrano 3 FX, under almost production yet been fully equipped but the man- conditions. This is to give the appren- agement complimented the people in tices an impression of the production of charge on what they have already the machines before they are going to achieved. At the time of the start-up, work in one of the final assembly the machinery park of the new training groups. classroom for theoretical lessons there workshop consisted of a brand-new The first-year apprentices who will will an additional, slightly smaller one turning lathe, two bench drilling ma- start their apprenticeship this year in with several computer workstations chines as well as a radial-column drilling September will find best conditions for where the apprentices can for example machine which has been taken along an optimum learning success as there work with CAD drawing programs. from the previous training site. New will also be new rooms for the theoret- work benches can accommodate eight ical training. Beside a large training more apprentices. Four assembly sta- tions as well as a marking and measur- ing station complete the picture. In the meantime, there also is a CNC milling machine WF-600. For the new milling centre the next step is due, too: after manual operation there now will be a Heidenhain-CNC- control. The apprentices will then be able to mill complicated contours or de- ploy a dxf-file which has been gener- ated in R&D and then to produce the part. In June the size of the training work- shop will be doubled. There will then be three welding bays, two MAG and a combined gas/WIG welding bay to be better able to meet the requirements of

34 HORSCH Foundation terra

Helping people to help themselves

Wolfgang Nürnberger, managing nised and, thus, is able to issue a corre- each of the Cuban farmers with a mat- director of the Fachagentur Boden- sponding contribution receipt which is raca, a simple dibble which allows for bearbeitung – Saat – Pflanzenschutz effective for tax purposes. sowing and applying fertiliser manually GmbH, reports on the activities to We finally got to know the Berlin- at the same time in a sort of direct seed- support small farmers in Cuba based association “KarEn Verein zur ing. Förderung alternativer Energien in der In September 2010 Traugott Horsch raditionally, at the end of the Karibik e.V.“ (KarEn Association for the and I together with ANAP representa- year the HORSCH company promotion of alternative energies in the tives visited the three middle provinces holds a staff meeting together Caribbean) a member of which we have and we were surprised at the wide- with an end-of-year celebration become. spread effect the three matracas had Tfor all employees. On the occasion of Together with the KarEn board mem- developed in this short time. As the Cu- such a staff meeting Traugott Horsch ber Gerda Daenecke I travelled to Cuba ban farmers are connected via loose informed about HORSCH’s social com- in February 2009. We visited several Ka- cooperatives, the matracas were used mitment which is carried out by the rEn projects, among them school camps, by several farmers. Here we noticed for HORSCH Foundation. which had been heavily damaged by the first time how important a good I was especially taken with the pro- hurricanes and have been renovated by education is for the development of the jects in Nicaragua where small farmers KarEn, as well as the Boyeros, a quarter Third World. The numerous farmers that in the mountain regions were provided on the outskirts of Havana where pro- took part in the meeting were able to with knowledge and practical instruc- jects for a stable water supply via wells understand Traugott Horsch’s explana- tions how to cultivate agricultural crops with solar and wind energy are carried tions which he provided with great in an erosion-reducing way. out. commitment in Spanish. The more so as During my holidays in 2005 my wife During our second trip we started they had understood that the introduc- and I visited Cuba for the first time and talking to ANAP, the organization of tion of this technology is attended by a we were impressed by the friendliness private small farmers in Cuba. They in- significant increase in productivity and and the good education of the people troduced us to the project “Erosion-re- a drastic reduction of physical stress. and the almost complete lack of crime. ducing cultivation of maize, soya and So far one man made a hole in the In the 90s, when I was still employed beans in the mountainous regions of ground with a hoe. A second man put a with the HORSCH company, I had al- the middle provinces Cienfuegos, Santa grain of maize into the hole which was ready supported financially the project Clara and Sancti Spiritus“ and we agreed closed afterwards. Now one man is suf- “Milk for Cuba’s children”. that ANAP would send three farmers ficient to cultivate more area per day In the course of further intensive dis- from these regions to Nicaragua to with better quality and a considerably cussions with Traugott Horsch, who learn about the experiences of the local higher productivity. lived in Nicaragua for quite a long time, small farmers. The airfares in April 2010 On our return and after presentation I grew the wish to carry out such activi- were paid by means of a donation to of a corresponding Cuban project our ties in Cuba, too. KarEn, the costs for the stay in Nicara- positive impressions made us buy a con- Therefore, my wife and I had to find gua was taken over by the HORSCH tainer with 940 matracas as well as an association which is officially recog- Foundation. Traugott Horsch presented three animal-drawn one-row seed drills

35 terra HORSCH Foundation

in Brazil and have them transported to pesos (corresponds to approx. two The donations that were collected on Havana. We were very grateful that the Euro). the occasion of my company’s anniver- HORSCH Foundation took over 50 per The aim of all these activities is the sary and my 60th birthday and which cent of the costs by means of a donation production increase of the individual amounted to approx. 20,000 Euro went to the non-government organisation farms to enable them to gain a little into these important projects to help KarEn. more wealth due to their effort and the Cubans to support themselves. On the occasion of my next trip in their skills. You are, however, bound to March 2011 I was able to witness per- notice that currently there still are nar- sonally the delivery of the matracas row limits set by the prevailing political which had been sold to the interested situation. We would like to see the Cu- farmers for a symbolic price of 50 Cuban ban farmers pay a higher price for our intended import of 150 animal-related Quick facts Cuba one-row seed drills from Brazil in order Official language: Spanish to find those farmers who are really Capital: Havana keen on obtaining more income due to Total area: their own effort. Our respective sugges- 110,860 km² tion to charge a peso amount of the Agricultural area/arable land: equivalent of two tons of maize per 65,300 km² / 35,000 km² seed drill has not been accepted so far Population: 11,451,652 so that the project had to be postponed Population density: to 2013. During our next trip in April 103 inhabitants per km² 2012 we visited the KarEn-initiated pro- Independence: jects for artificial irrigation by means of from Spain: 10. December 1898, plunger pumps and solar panels. from the USA: 20. May 1902 Fighting poverty through enterprise: How business can aid in the fight against global poverty

apital is closely connected to authors of this booklet, Lord Brian Grif- become a new asset class and a critical social responsibility. The fiths and Dr. Kim Tan, both successful second step to support the growth of HORSCH company is aware of investors and economic experts, cer- small and medium sized enterprises in this responsibility. Therefore, tainly believe that foreign aid has a developing countries, so creating jobs Cit uses the HORSCH Foundation to sup- role to play in facing this challenge. and reducing poverty. port projects where capital and know- However, here they voice the need for how are invested in the building up of greater emphasis to be given to the The booklet is available in German profit-oriented economic businesses in part that business and enterprise can and in English. order to create jobs – thus to create lo- play in reducing poverty. cal income which allows for a change towards a sustainable humane life. An In recent years China and India have essential characteristic of corporate proved dramatic examples of countries policy is that any income remains which have reformed their economies, where it has been earned and thus al- opened up to trade and investment, lows for and favors the development embraced an enterprise culture, and of local infrastructure and the local ac- lifted millions of their citizens out of cumulation of income. poverty. Griffiths and Tan believe Af- rica has the same po- The HORSCH Foundation has now tential as Asia. Micro- published a booklet which focuses on credit has been a exactly this topic: Fighting poverty crucial first step in di- through enterprise. rectly helping the poor escape poverty. Using To date, the debate on tackling case studies they argue global poverty has been dominated by that social venture cap- the case for providing more aid. The ital has the potential to

36 Service & Sales terra Full speed ahead for the customers

Specialised companies for agricultural of construction workers and heavy equip- development Hentis has already under- machinery are the essential link be- ment showed that on an area of about gone: When Jochen Etzold took over Hen- tween final customers and manufac- two hectares a specialised company for tis Landtechnik in 1995 and rented the turers. With their advisory skills and agricultural machinery builds its new building, the turnover was three million their professional competence, with headquarters. The owner is the Saatzucht D-Mark earned by six employees. When various services and with great com- Flettmar e.G. who builds the complex for Hentis was taken over by Saatzucht Flett- mitment they make sure that the cus- their subsidiary company Hentis Land- mar in 2007 there were 33 employees and tomers can make best possible use of maschinen. This old-established specialised the turnover amounted to well over 9.5 their machines. One example for this company which is situated in the town million Euro – and still with tendency to is the company Hentis Landmaschinen centre is managed by Jochen Etzold and rise. in Gadenstedt near Peine. has been part of Saatzucht Flettmar since Right from the start Jochen Etzold re- 2007. “Due to the very favourable turno- lied on a tight range of a few main brands. his spring, coming from Peine in ver development and the significantly in- Today among them are New Holland and Lower Saxony, those who ap- creasing requirements of the customers Amazone – but the main supplier with a proached Gadenstedt which is our old building literally bursts at the turnover share of almost 50 per cent is situated about 15 kilometres seams. With the new premises we set the HORSCH. Hentis has been selling this Tsouth of Peine inevitably came across a course for working in the best possible brand since 1998. At that time Jochen Et- large construction site. On the northern way for our customer“, he explains. zold, who not only is a master mechanic outskirts of Gadenstedt the large number A few figures are enough to show the for agricultural machinery, but also a

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farmer with his own farm, met Michael attach great importance to a guaranteed Horsch whose technical concept impressed delivery capacity, because experience him extremely. “I, then, was one of the shows that this is our enormous competi- first specialised companies in Northern tive advantage. “ Germany to get involved with the HORSCH In his opinion, this is also reflected in a brand. And due to my own experience in respectable HORSCH market share – in farming as well as in agricultural engineer- view of a severe competition. It amounts ing the spark soon ignited more and more to 20 to 25 per cent, depending on the customers. With the success increasing, the region and the product line. But there still specialisation and competence of the is potential, comments Jochen Etzold. One whole team increased, too – in sales as well starting point among others is an even as in service. We also get optimum support more specific market analysis and develop- from the HORSCH sales representative and ment. “But also our own image here in his service team. We gladly accept this sup- Gadenstedt plays a very important role. port because it is only together that we This is why we would like to open our new can make it. The merger of our know-how building on the occasion of our annual guarantees an enormous customer accept- open house at the end of June.“ ance and, in my opinion, is one of the most At least this is true for the first construc- Jochen Etzold manages the company in important prerequisites to be able to score Gadenstedt and the success of the specialisation tion stage which consists of an exhibition as a specialist in the specialised trade. “ in the machinery segment is quite obvious. hall which also houses the sales offices as This self-confidence is also reflected in well as a training facility and where the the new building mentioned in the begin- handing over of machines will take place. ning as it is to be decorated with the sign happen. In such a case, it is important to More importantly, on large surfaced open- “HORSCH Competence Centre“. “This is, of find a solution which is to our customer’s air areas the machines can be presented in course, not to sweep our own company benefit. Here, too, we are on the same an appealing way. Later, the garage and name under the carpet, on the contrary. wavelength with HORSCH.“ the spare parts store will move from the We are working closely and successfully For Hentis a good stock is not only im- town centre to the new premises. „But with the Horsch family and their team. But portant with regard to spare parts (the there is no need to hurry. First of all, the we are the competence centre, it is our stock value for spare parts amounts to ap- lease contract for the old building only ex- own performance that is behind it. A spe- prox. 1.5 million Euro), but also with re- pires in 2017 and secondly this second, cialised company as a link between agricul- gard to machines. The orders for the bulk even more important investment step has ture and industry only has the right to ex- of the expected annual sales is ordered to be well prepared. But already with the ist if its own performance is convincing already in autumn of the previous year. first hall that will be finished soon we are – from the first counseling contact to the Knowing the customers and the buying able to present ourselves in an optimum service after a machine has been sold. habits helps to do the preliminary plan- way and arouse even more enthusiasm Those who call the manufacturer for any ning. “And if we are confronted with un- among our customers. For this is the best minor detail, will soon become dispensa- anticipated customer requirements, we marketing effect in order to achieve fur- ble“, Jochen Etzold points out with total also find a solution. What is crucial is that ther growth“, is Jochen Etzold’s final con- conviction. However, with a smile he adds: the customers are completely satisfied. I clusion. “But nevertheless, some of the customers still like it, if there is representative of the manufacturer present before signing the contract or at the delivery of the machine. That is something we do, of course, not mind at all.“ For Hentis, however, competence is not only limited to know how. On call duty after office hours and on week-ends, a mo- bile after-sales service, a near by garage due to the cooperation with six basic deal- ers and an excellent spare parts availability are also extremely important aspects for Jochen Etzold. His basic philosophy: sup- port the customers in the best and fastest possible way. “And it is not the costs that have top priority, but the satisfaction of the customer. They are well aware of this attitude - and they appreciate it“, Jochen Etzold explains. “No manufacturer and no On the occasion of the annual open house the specialised company exhibits up to dealer is absolutely perfect, and mistakes 50 HORSCH maschines.

38 FITZ Training centre terra Drilling maize: the double row makes the difference

rilling maize with traditional with drill seeding for maize. The results seed drill with a row spacing of 15 cm. seed drills has been discussed were extremely consistent. The results more importantly, the HORSCH Pronto for many years. Especially due shown in chart 1 were gathered during DC PPF is equipped with underground to the expansion of silage a drilling test that was carried out on fertilisation (PPF: Precision Placement of Dmaize for biogas many farmers have three sites together with the Chamber Fertilizer). The fertiliser is placed in turned to growing maize. These farms, of Agriculture of Lower Saxony. The as- bands with a row spacing of 30 cm. The of course, very quickly have to deal with certained yield differences between sin- placement depth can be adjusted in the question if the existing seed drill for gle grain seeding (EK) and drill seeding steps from 1 to 10 cm. Thus, 2 seed rows rapeseed and cereals can also be used (HORSCH 15 cm) are exemplary for the are supplied by one fertiliser band. for maize or if it would make more experiences that have been made with There are basically 2 core points that sense to invest in a single grain seed regard to this question. In addition, the have to be taken into consideration drill. influence of underground fertilisation when drilling maize: Already for quite a while HORSCH (UFD) has also been analysed in this test. has been concentrating on this ques- The silage maize was planted with two 1. Keeping up a sufficient placement tion. Thus, planting maize with a uni- HORSCH machines – the single grain depth (4 to 6 cm). Experience shows that versal seed drill is not an uncharted ter- version with a HORSCH Maistro RC and seed that has been placed too shallowly ritory. In many tests over several years the drill seeding version with a HORSCH emerges very poorly and reacts with a single grain seeding has been compared Pronto 3 DC PPF. The latter is a universal worse plant development.

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2. The seed population should be for maize this causes a considerable de- ha in various conditions. higher by 1 to 2 grains/m2. This experi- crease of the individual plant output of After having analysed thoroughly ence was gained in numerous field tests. the double and triple spots. the relationships shown above and as When you compare the figures from we were looking for an optimising of chart 1, you will notice a yield difference 2. Breeding material: drill seeding for maize, we quickly real- of 7 % in favour of single grain sowing The maize varieties are extracted ised that we had to focus on points 2 with underground fertilisation. Without conventionally in row spacings of 70 to and 3. The increase of the row spacings underground fertilisation, however, the 80 cm. The same is true for the variety could be handled very easily from the yield difference is only 3 %. screening. Thus, the varieties with the technical point of view by means of a Where might be the reasons for this highest productive capacity for wide distributor attachment. Already in 2008 yield difference? rows are selected. These varieties have the first tests with different row spac- If you examine the method more a yield advantage in wide rows. ings for drill seeding of maize have closely, you can work out three impor- been made. The variants consisted of tant points: 3. Population thinning and popula- single and double rows with 45 cm, 60 tion aeration: cm and 75 cm spacing. The double-row 1. Seed distribution in the row: The advantage of cultivating maize adjustment is set up in such a way that The random seed distribution in the in wide rows are the better thinning always two coulters place the maize row of the drill seeding version results and aeration of the population. To- with a spacing of 15 cm. Depending on in double or triple spots even with seed gether with the selected breeding ma- the row spacing there is no seed in the sizes of about 10 grains/m2. Especially terial the result is a slightly higher yield/ next 2, 3 or 4 rows.

T % abs. T % rel. TM dt / ha TM dt / ha Starch Starch Starch Starch Energy Energy abs. rel. content abs. content rel. output abs. output rel. density abs. density rel. EK 75 cm UFD 33,4 100 217,9 100 36,5 100 79,8 100 6,90 100 HORSCH 15 cm UFD 31,8 95 202,3 93 35,5 97 72,1 90 6,86 100 EK 75 cm 31,9 95 203,7 94 35,4 97 72,3 91 6,87 100 HORSCH 15 cm 31,6 95 197,6 91 34,8 95 69,0 87 6,85 99 Average 32,2 96 205,4 94 35,6 97 73,3 92 6,87 100 Chart 1: Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Saxony 2008/2009 3 sites: Werlte/Wehnen/Poppenburg

40 Schematic diagram 1: Coulter distribution Pronto 3 DC PPF 60 cm double row with underground fertilisation unit Black lines: TurboDisc seed coulter with 15 cm row spacing Red points: Maize double row with 60 cm spacing Blue points: Underground fertilisation coulter 60 cm 60 cm 60 cm 60 cm with 30 cm coulter spacing

Already in the first test year the dou- Seedbed preparation has been car- weighed and tested separately. The ble-row variants turned out to be con- ried out directly before sowing also samples were examined in a laboratory siderably more advantageous. with the compact disc harrow HORSCH with regards to dry matter content, In the test years 2009/2010 and Joker CT. starch content and energy density. 2010/2011 the 60-cm double row with The fertiliser used in the test was 120 The test result for all three variants the highest fresh mass yield/ha ranks in kg/h N as urea before sowing. At the shows a very high yield level of up to front of the single grain variant. The 60- time of sowing 30 kg/ha N, 30 kg/ha 71.4 t/ha fresh mass for variant Pronto cm double (schematic diagram 1) row is P2O5 and 30 kg/ha K2O were additionally 60 cm double row. The dry matter con- set up in such a way that 10 rows are applied with underground fertilisation. tents ranged from 35 to 36 %. The yields positioned for a 3 m working width. Weed and weed grass regulation was of the single grain variant (Maistro 75 There is now maize in the first row right carried out in the 4- to 6-leaf stage of cm EKS) and the Pronto 60 cm double at the outside so that no double row has the maize with 3.0 l/ha Gardo Gold row are on almost the same level with a to be positioned where the 2 bouts join. (187.5 g/l Terbuthylazin, 312.5 g/l S-Me- slight yield advantage of 6 t/ha dry mat- The next two rows from the left and the tolachlor) + 0.6 l/ha Callisto (100 g/l ter or 3.5 t/ha fresh mass for 60-cm dou- right side are sown as a double row. Ac- Mesotrione) + 0.3 l/ha Certrol B (235 g/l ble row. Drill seeding with a row spac- cording to this pattern, the whole work- Bromoxynil). ing of 15 cm, however, declines more ing width is separated in double rows with a middle spacing of 60 cm. This adjustment can be adapted to all avail- able working widths of the HORSCH Pronto DC and DC PPF. If the under- 800.000 ground fertilisation unit PPF is used, one fertiliser coulter runs beside the maize row (7.5 cm beside the row and up to 6 600.000 cm below the seed). W Gross yield dt / ha 400.000 W TM dt / ha The tests:

Both results from the double row- 252,369 200.000 229,097 246,240 maize drill seeding test series have been recorded at completely different sites. Test 1: set up in spring 2011 in the 0.000 demo garden at Sitzenhof. Pronto Pronto Maistro Sowing was carried out on the 15th 15 cm 60 cm 75 cm EKS double row of April 2011 with variety DKC 3398 (Dekalb) under good, but already very Analysis: Own tests demo garden 2010/2011 dry conditions. The field had been culti- vated shallowly with the compact disc harrow HORSCH Joker CT in autumn 2010 after winter wheat and had been The weather was marked by a very considerably by 1.7 t/ha dry matter com- loosened deeply (25 cm) at the end of dry April and May. June, July, August pared to the single grain variant. This October with a HORSCH Terrano 3 FX and September were ideal for the good corresponds to an approx. 7 % lower without wing coulters. The latter is a development of the test maize. dry matter yield. 3-bar universal cultivator with a tine Harvest was carried out on the 26th This experience can also be con- spacing of 30 cm. The wing coulters are of Septemer 2011 with a self-propelled firmed with the figures from test 2 not used for deep loosening, on the one forage harvester. On all plots the side which is an external test that has been hand to avoid the creation of smearing section (both ends of the plot) was re- carried out at two sites in 2010/2011 by layers and on the other hand to reduce moved and not included in the result. the Chamber of Agriculture of Lower the horse power requirement. The harvested crops of all plots were Saxony. The variants single grain seed

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(EKS 75 cm), Pronto 60 cm double row ent row spacings for drill seeding and penburg was carried out with a Pronto and Pronto 75 cm double row were their effect on yield. 3 DC PPF with underground fertilisation tested. This test was to examine differ- Sowing at the sites Werlte and Pop- on the 14th of April 2011.The variety used was Alumic (RAGT). Population management, rating and harvest was carried out on the 23rd 600 resp. 28th of September 2011 by the Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Sax- ony. The results of this test are similar to 450 those of test 1 – the yields of the variant Pronto 60 cm double row with 5 t/ha dry W FM dt / ha matter was slightly more advantageous 300 W TM dt / ha than the single grain variant (EKS 75 cm). The variant Pronto 75 cm double 202,52 207,51 row, however, declines more consider- 150 191,13 ably with a yield disadvantage of 1.2 t/ ha dry matter compared to single grain sowing. The reason surely is the distri- 0 bution of the seed in the row. The larger EKS 75 cm Pronto Pronto the width of the row, the more grains 60 cm 75 cm double row double row have to be distributed per metre in a row. Thus, the risk of double or multiple Analysis: Test Agricultural Chamber of Lower Saxony 2010/2011 spots increases. The tests show that the

42 60-cm double row is the best option for thinning and aeration of the population Summary: and for the seed distribution in a row. Maize drilling may be very efficient if several aspects are taken into account: These two test results are exemplary for the results of the last three years. In The seed population should be higher by 1 to 2 grains/m2 compared to the sowing year 2012, too, row width tests usual single grain variant. for maize are carried out at three sites to gather further experiences, also with Keeping up the suitable placement depth of the maize seed of 4 to 8 cm is various maize varieties. crucial.

By adjusting the row spacings drill seeding of maize is quite competitive in the silage maize sector.

Perennial tests with very good yield output showed that the 60-cm double row is optimal.

The 60 cm double row can be carried out with all HORSCH Pronto DC and DC PPF seed drills by using a so-called maize distributor (accessory that is available as a spare part). One fertiliser coulter of the HORSCH Pronto DC PPF seed drills with underground fertilisation respectively supplies one maize row with a fertiliser deposit for an excellent nutrient supply of the young maize plant.

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HORSCH Seminars 2012

n spring 2012 HORSCH continued the Pro bio – pro intensive - Current developments in agriculture tradition of its agricultural seminars. farming - Arguments pro organic farming Four dates and four different loca- - Aspects of intensive farming tions all over Germany as well as cur- - Outlook on the crop farming Irent topics from the crop farming sector The theme of the kick-off seminar year 2012 attraced numerous farmers. In this issue was „Pro bio – Pro intensive farming“. of terraHORSCH you will find an extract The FITCentre at the company head- Right at the beginning HORSCH man- of this-year’s seminar series. quarters in Sitzenhof near Schwandorf aging director Michael Horsch stated: was full to the limit. The topics for the „No matter if bio or conventional farm- day were: ing, in the end it is all about sustainable

44 HORSCH seminar in Schwandorf. From left to right: Michael Horsch, Anja Baumert, Dr. Hansgeorg Schönberger

subsistence strategy. “Sustainable supply“, Michael Horsch said. “The that of a plough. He showed photos of meaning in this case: better for the gen- phosphate supplies run out even faster plant tests to prove his statements. His erations to come. With regard to the than the oil supply.“ result were: “We are more and more current development in agriculture he In order to save fertiliser costs, moving towards deep mixing and deep pointed out that 2.3 billion tons of cere- HORSCH concentrates on the topic of fertilising – with the logical conse- als are at the disposal of seven billion deep fertilising. “ We have to reconsider quence of connecting the two steps in people (380 kilogram per person per topsoil deepening. However, this does one pass to be able to use the resources year). With an increasing population not mean that we have to work even in a sensible way.“ production has to be increased, too, but more deeply“, Horsch explained. Ac- It has always been HORSCH’s concern on the same fields – a fact that results in cording to his experiences deep fertilis- to save the soil. This is why “Controlled an even more intensive fertilisation. ing only makes sense up to approx. 30 Traffic Farming“ (CTF) is perfectly in line Due to the increased demand the price centimetre. In this context it is impor- with the company’s philosophy. For this which is additionally driven up by the tant that the hole that has been made system fixed tracks are laid in the field crude oil price increases, too. “The most with the tines is refilled with soil. Oth- which are used by all machines (with the important problem is the phosphate erwise, the effect would be the same as same track width) similar to a field path.

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HORSCH seminar in Schwandorf

There is no driving beside these tracks. At the end of his speech he compared from an economic point of view than Horsch went on explaining: “With wide Canada and Kazakhstan where the cli- comparable farms that are working con- tyres the soil pressure decreases, but at matic conditions for farming are very ventionally. At the same time the prin- the same time more soil gets rolled over similar. In Northern Canada the harvest ciples of organic farming „Preservation and, thus, gets sealed what often is yields of 2.3 tons obtained with a tar- and improvement of the soil health“ are even worse.“ geted subsistence strategy are approx. fully met. According to Michael Horsch the rea- twice as high. Therefore, a balanced crop rotation sons for the increased yields in the past is particularly important. Her example were as follows: Pro bio for a six-crop rotation was: - breeding Anja Baumert talked about the topic - higher tractor power resulting in a Pro bio“. She is an expert adviser with - grass-clover deeper and faster cultivation at the the Naturland association and manages - grass-clover optimum time her own organic farm in the Upper Pa- - wheat for baking or potatoes - tyre technology with less soil pressure latinate. Currently, six per cent of the or maize and slip farmland in Germany is farmed organi- - oats or spring barley or rye - deeply mixing cultivation cally. The turnover is six billion Euro. - peas or field beans or sweet “Since 2000 the product range has been fodder lupin With CTF he furthermore expects: increasing by 170 per cent, the market - brewing wheat even by 300 per cent“, she reported. - less tracks The crisis did not affect organic farming. To secure the yields, the regulation of - targeted cultivation She showed figures of the German Fed- root weeds is essential. Specific stubble - less dependent on weather extremes eral Ministry for Food, Agriculture and cultivation plays a decisive role. “This- - higher area output Consumer Protection to prove that or- tles are weakest in spring, but the - more protection of the environment ganic farms are considerably better off weather and the time pressure rarely

46 allow for action at that time“, she de- As the main objectives for intensive Germany and the country is independ- scribed the problem. Therefore, it makes farming he lists: ent with regard to food. More impor- sense to carry out three passes in ap- - economic and sustainable crop tantly, according to him, scandals do prox. two weeks time in summer. The rotation not occur in the producing, but in the working depth is to increase from ap- - varieties that guarantee safe yields processing sector. prox. ten to fourteen up to 25 centim- - loosen the soil at a depth that is However, the following discussion eter. From the beginning of October the optimal for the plant root with the farmers showed that organic thistle hardly grows. This is the reason - turn the soil when deep down and conventional farms have a good re- why all measures should have been humus and nutrients get barren lationship. taken till that date. - use as much fertiliser as soil “In organic farming it is the soil that and plants need Crop production year 2012 is fertilised, not the plant“, Anja - fight the competition of weeds In the last part of his speech Dr. Baumert explained. It is, thus, necessary - protect plants Hansgeorg Schönberger described his to stimulate and to preserve the clay- view of the year 2012 from a crop pro- humus-complexes. Organic crop rota- From his calculations - what if the duction point of view. Especially popu- tions encourage the building-up of hu- whole world would change over to or- lations which already had started veg- mus, thus reducing erosion considerably. ganic farming – he drew the following etation in January suffered from the Organic farming attaches more impor- conclusions: “Wheat yields would de- frost in February. “Particularly the large tance to the interaction of individual crease by 19 per cent, maize yields even plants are now highly infested with factors anyway. Nitrogen fertilising in by 33 per cent.“ According to him for snow-mould,“ he reports. Wheat – de- conventional farming for example re- Germany alone this would mean that six pending on the variety - is frost-proof duces the cell wall thickness of the per cent of all employees would have to up to minus 18 degree Celsius, winter plants, thus disease fungi are better work in the farming sector again. In this barley till up to approx. minus twelve able to penetrate. “Another example is context he drew attention to the fact degree Celsius. Winter hardy wheat and that if there are a lot of earthworms, that the farming sector accounted for a rye varieties can put up with frost of mi- the plant louse infestation is signifi- cantly reduced.“

She summarised the most important arguments for organic farming as fol- lows: - soil fertility - water protection - biodiversity

- CO2 fixation - erosion control

At the end of her presentation Anja Baumert asked: „What are you going to tell your children if they ask you: What have you done against the destruction of our environment and the resources?“

Pro intensive farming In his speech Dr. Hansgeorg Schön- berger, NU Agrar, argued pro intensive farming. Only the intensive subsistence strategy is the reason the yields in Ger- many are three to five times higher than in the rest of the world. “An important HORSCH seminar in Gera. Theodor Leeb reason for this is breeding with a modi- fication of the grain/straw ratio towards more grain“, he stated. The scarce fac- considerable movement of labour. “The nus 100 degree Celsius on four consecu- tor soil has to be used efficiently and it farming sector is primarily responsible tive days. He expects the highest winter is essential to refeed nutrients. Farming for the economic miracle!“ For the killing damages in Northwestern Ger- looses 24 kilogram of phosphate per shortage of labour was soon compen- many and in the Wuerzburg area. “This year through the sales of cereals and sated by investments in machinery. The year between 15 and 25 per cent of win- other plants. “Sewage sludge should contribution of agriculture to general ter wheat will have to be cultivated not be burnt, as the nutrients will be welfare should not be underestimated out“, he forecasts. Late crops might lost forever“, he voiced his concern. – there are no longer any famines in have to face the problem that the roots

47 terra FITZ Training centre

HORSCH seminar in Gera. Dr. Sebastian Ulrich

are up in the air, in this case a roller will he made a bet with the audience: “In “We have to get to a deeper level have to be used. For rapeseed these 2012, rapeseed will reach the 500 EUR a with the top soil“, the plant production problems are less acute, as in recent tone mark.“ expert states. The root architecture of years considerable attention has been The future in farming will be a race the useful plant has, of course, to be paid to winter hardy varieties. for arable land. It has already been taken into account. Plough and mulch As the quantity of the first amount of opened by China and Saudi-Arabia. pans have to be avoided to give more fertiliser particularly depends on the “And in the meantime even the land room to the plants. A further aspect weather, Dr. Schönberger made various prices in East Germany have reached the that supports root growth is deep ferti- fertiliser recommendations depending West German level“, Michael Horsch lising. It has a long-term effect and the on the type of soil. Weak populations pointed out. fertiliser, especially ammonium nitrate should be fertilised at an early stage. Horsch is convinced that rent and fer- and phosphate, acts as an attractant for During the following machinery ex- tiliser costs will dominate farming in the root growth. The objective has to be to hibition the participants were informed future. Today their share in production carry out fertilisation in the top layer about current HORSCH machines for costs are 25 per cent, in the future it will and in the deeper layers in the right way cultivation and sowing. at least be 50 per cent. “For land and from a technical point of view. fertiliser it has only got started. In the Another approach to reduce the use countries of the former Soviet Union of resources is strip farming - StripTill. Plant protection techno- about two thirds of 220 million hectare This sowing system that is quite com- logy – The next big step are farmed in a depleting way. So far mon in the USA does not fit everywhere soil was of no value. How much fertiliser in Europe. “When sowing sugarbeet will be needed there in the future?“, with a row spacing of 45 or 50 centime- The market is characterised by a Horsch comments and he is sure that tres StripTill makes much sense. It is also shortage of staple food. Due to the phosphor will be the bottleneck of the advantageous for maize, but only with worldwide trade surplus and shortage nutrient supply. a row spacing of 50 centimetres or less. regions get balanced faster. This is why This is the reason why it is necessary With 75 centimetres concerns about the the crop prices will remain on their high to find new screws for the farmers to lack of N-mineralisation and the tem- level. With these perspectives Michael turn. “The yields have to increase while perature balance prevail.“ Horsch opened the HORSCH seminar at the same time using the same re- A new approach is to sow on ridges “Plant protection technology – the time sources like for example fertiliser“, Mi- that increase the field surface and guar- is ripe for the next big step “in Gera. chael Horsch demands. Plants often get antee a fast soil heating. RTK-controlled “The perspectives for 2012 are excel- into stressful situations and rather die cultivators and seed drills are essential lent, too“, he said with conviction and of hunger than of thirst. for this system. Prototypes of such ma-

48 chines are already used, for example a machinery sector. The rear axle is avail- 230 compared to a trailed Dammann cultivator with a seed and fertiliser hop- able as a rigid or steerable version. The sprayer. 4168 hectares are cultivated. per in front. “But this is only half of it“, user can select between three steering The fields’ soil points range from 25 to Michael Horsch points out. And he him- modes. A regulated speed control is one 95. The self-propelled sprayer with self answers the question “So what of the new equipments. 8000-litre tank and a 36-metre Inuma else?“ with one keyword: Controlled What followed now was the most in- boom has been on the farm since 2008 Traffic. teresting part. Theodor Leeb presented and so far has done 55000 hectares. The the new self-propelled sprayer PT 350 trailed sprayer (5000 litres, 36 metres) Why could CTF be the next big step? – a completely new concept with middle has been in use since 2005 and has done So far, yield increases derived from cabin, independent wheel suspension 59600 hectares. plant-breeding, plant protection. Tyre and a 6.000-litre hopper. The ground The sprayers are equipped with technology and deeply mixing cultiva- clearance of the PT 350 is 1.4 to 1.8 me- Lechler ID 05 and IDN025, Agrotop Tur- tion contributed, too. tres, the track width is 2.25 to three me- bodrop HiSpeed 05 and 025 as well as Further yield increases are possible tres. Thus, it is suitable for Controlled for fertilising with Lechler FD 10 and FD with CTF due to less tracks on the field Traffic. Depending on the various boom 05 nozzles. And there are nozzle drag as well as to specific cultivation and versions the outside width of the sprayer tubes. “Our sprayers carry out about 50 deep fertilising. Thus, extreme condi- ranges from 2.8 to 3.5 metres. “In 2012, per cent of the fertilisation on our tions – wet/dry years – can be handled we are going to build two prototypes of fields“, Dr. Sebastian Ulrich explains. more easily and a considerably higher the PT 350“, Theodor Leeb promised. The economic analysis for Quellen- area output can be achieved while at It has to be the objective of all plant dorf was quite interesting: The result the same time guaranteeing a better protection measures to achieve an opti- for the Leeb PT 230 is 0.26 Euro per hec- protection of the environment. mum effect while at the same time pro- tare and 4.58 Euro per operational hour. “With regard to the tracks on the tecting the environment in an optimum The Dammann sprayer is pulled by a fields it is not the ground pressure that way. “Therefore, we have to reduce John Deere 6920 and the result is 0.75 is crucial“, the technical expert explains. drift and improve the adhesion of the Euro per hectare and 7.41 Euro per op- „There are tracks on the field because spray liquid“, the plant protection ex- erational hour. the soil gets milled, the air is pressed out pert emphasises. He is critical about the According to Dr. Ulrich the advan- and the soil, thus, is sealed.“ air support. “The boom gets heavy and tages of the self-propelled sprayer are CTF starts with the combine. All ma- it is difficult to handle for the user.“ the traction, the weight distribution, chines run on a three-metre track. The Wind, the drop spectrum and the tar- the ground clearance (treatment of cutting width of the combine is twelve get area spacing have a considerable rapeseed flowers) and the ergonomics metres and every year it runs in the influence on drift. “If the distance is 50 (visual range, handling). same track. The advantage of caterpillar centimetres or less, we need a nozzle units is that they have a maximum width every 25 centimetres. With 80-degree Increase productivity of 60 or 80 centimetres. Wheeled trac- nozzles the saturation of the plant pop- Robert Dorsemagen, farmer in La Lu- tors are no longer necessary. ulation for example for potato cultiva- cine, France, farms about 470 hectares tion is excellent“, Leeb continued. The on two sites. Since the 90s he has been Plant protection JKI measured a drift reduction of more concentrating on the topic water appli- The topic plant protection gets more than 90 per cent for a target area spac- cation rate when spraying. In France, an and more important for Horsch Leeb. In ing of 30 centimetres. The combination average of 150 litres per hectare are ap- Gera, Theodor Leeb presents the prod- of a double flat-jet nozzle and a single plied while spraying. 80 per cent of the uct range - the trailed sprayers GS 6000 flat-jet nozzle also results in an excel- farms reduce this to 100 to 150 litres per and GS 8000 as well as the self-propelled lent wetting. hectare. A low water application rate PT 270. The boom of the GS 6000 is con- “The user has to decide“, Theodor ranges between 30 to 80 litres per hec- trolled via a mast, that of the GS 8000 Leeb pointed out, “at what time he tare. via a parallelogram. All sprayers are wants to spray how many milligrams of The objective when reducing the wa- equipped with stainless steel tanks the active agent. There are sensors for ter application rate is to increase pro- which are easy to clean. The optimised analysing the leaf mass.“ The spray liq- ductivity, to reduce labour and machine piping system guarantees low residual uid has to be applied on the plant and costs, to improve the efficiency of the quantities. The rotary pump with an not on the soil (fungicides) or in the air. active agents by optimum (high humid- output of 800 litres per minute has a This is why the application quality has ity, little wind) and timely applications, very compact design. As rotary pumps to be increased. We have to start think- but also to concentrate these active are not able to suck, it is placed at the ing in a new direction. agents and thus to reduce the applica- lowest point of the liquid system. To tion rate of the plant protection agents. guarantee a continuous inside cleaning, Advantage of a self-propelled sprayer On both farms a total area (without it has been equipped with an additional From the point of view of a practical fallow land) of 436 hectares per year are diaphragm pump. farmer Dr. Sebastian Ulrich from the sprayed. This amounts to 3.000 hectares The self-propelled sprayer is equipped Quellendorfer Dienstleistungen AG de- in seven operations (without fertilising). with a Krone cabin, a Deutz engine and scribed his experiences with a self-pro- Robert Dorsemagen demonstrated that mechanical axles from the construction pelled plant protection sprayer Leeb PT the diesel consumption decreased by 50

49 terra FITZ Training centre

HORSCH seminar in Gera

per cent from 1.2 to 0.6 litres per hec- Guaranteed effect new sprayer should have a nozzle spac- tare. Water consumption was reduced Josef Stangl, NU Agrar GmbH Schac- ing of 25 centimetres. But the most im- from 460 to 150 cubic metre and labour kenthal, asked: how far can we go in portant rule for all applications still is to costs decreased by 45 per cent – before plant protection to guarantee effect pay attention to the optimum weather 300 hours, now 160 hours. At the same and efficiency? Does new technology situation and to carry out the plant time it was possible to reduce the ap- also mean better effect? In his opinion treatment at the optimum time. plication rate of spraying agents by this includes drift reducing nozzles, about 15 to 20 per cent. „In addition, boom stabilisation for example with an this way of working increases the moti- automatic boom control, automatic sec- vation of the employees“, Dorsemagen tional switching, electronic metering, stated. high speeds or the penetration behav- Good and sufficient wetting depends iour of the active agents. on the technology used like nozzles, Nozzle test showed that rough-drop pressure, speed, boom height. For the nozzles result in a worse spray covering. spray mixture active agent groups and New nozzles like for example injection modellings are essential. Droplet size double flat-jet nozzles achieve an excel- and the impact angle are extremely im- lent saturation even at high operational portant for the distribution. The climatic speeds (trailed sprayers 10 to 14 km/h; conditions also have to be taken into self-propelled sprayers up to 25 km/h). account: air humidity, wind (drift, evap- There is no noticeable yield decrease. oration) as well as the degree of effi- The drift risk, however, increases at high ciency due to concentration and water speeds. A lower boom location mini- quality (pH value and hardness). mises that risk. The influence of mode- According to the experiences of Rob- ling and additives on drift still has to be ert Dorsemagen spraying under good tested. conditions means: When using fungicides, yield differ- ences when using between 100 and 200 – air humidity > 70 - 80% litres of water per hectare were low. – wind - calm (<10km/h) The water application rate should be – wet soil (soil-effective agents) adjusted. With regard to drift the ratio – slightly varying temperatures of the individual nozzle spacing and the (variation 15°C without frost distance to the population should be and 10°C with frost) taken into consideration. If necessary a

50 THE FUTURELeeb IN PLANT PROTECTION GS 8000 IS HAPPENING TODAY

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