The Biostar from Danish firm GST is another take on the rotary hoe, which can be adapted to suit different conditions.

Springs can be switched on each of the hinged rotary units to adjust how aggressively they work the soil, and they can be individually lifted to work between crop rows.

See also: Buyer’s guide: Camera-guided sugar beet hoes

When all are engaged, they need to be adjusted so they do enough work to pull out weeds without damaging the crop.

Various working widths are available from 4m to 15m (a 9m is pictured above) and they can be fitted with a seeder unit that feeds spreader plates above the rotors.

This has a hydraulic fan, allowing robust seed/fertiliser rates to be applied at speeds of 15 to 25kph.

Suffolk Plant Machinery is importing the machines into the UK, with prices starting at £9,000 for a 4m.