Agricultural machinery tests in the open air

The meaningfulness of open-air tests – technical process comparisons dealing e.g. with soil tillage, sowing technology or harvesting tests – can be significantly enhance on IPZ land prepared according to standardised parameters. These tests supplement the results of the DLG Test Center Technology and Farm Inputs, a European leader.

Combine harvesters have been tested as regards their straw distribution and threshing losses, soil cultivation equipment such as cultivators and disc harrows in terms of their straw mixing, and real values can be ascertained by means of tractive power and fuel consumption measurements.

The placement accuracy of plot seed drills was tested in 2012. Good longitudinal and lateral distribution of the seed on the plot is an essential prerequisite for precise trials. In order to test the status of the current technology and determine any differences between various systems, the DLG Committee for Arable Farming developed a plot seed drill comparison which it invited several manufacturers to attend. On 26.9.2012, their machines sowed large, medium and small seeds in various seed rates on a total of 256 plots. Once the plants began to emerge, the longitudinal and lateral distribution over the field were measured. To do this, the locations of each individual plant in each row was measured as the distance in cm from the start of the plot (scope: around 85,000 data sets).

Results concerning tractive power/slip behaviour as well as differences in the resulting fuel consumption at a constant working speed were also determined in tractor tyre comparison tests. These measurements are always carried out in the context of simulated real tractor stresses during use on the field and can be viewed in the form of summarised test reports on the DLG homepage.

A pilot trial concerning the influence of various share forms at the IPZ in Bernburg-Strenzfeld was conducted in 2014 to evaluate work efficiency in soil tillage. The DLG test engineers were able to determine relevant parameters such as tractive power requirements, re-compaction, crumb structure and straw mixing, for instance, using the latest test and measurement technology. The DLG Committee for Technology in Crop Production and the team at the Internationales DLG-Pflanzenbauzentrum (IPZ) in Bernburg were therefore able to carry out initial measurements regarding the tractive power requirements of various share forms.