The latest high-capacity trailed spreaders can combine high workrates and pinpoint precision. Peter Hill reports.

Trailed spreaders providing bigger capacities and outputs for fertiliser applications are becoming as sophisticated as their tractor-mounted counterparts.

There are still spreaders with basic twin disc distribution for bulk potash, phosphate and other materials but growers with a large nitrogen spreading workload and distant fields can now get the wide-spreading precision of the best mounted spreaders from a trailed machine.

Amazone

Few trailed spreaders are as sophisticated as the Amazone ZG-TS (pictured), which integrates the company’s latest spreading mechanism with 5,500 litre or 8,200 litre hoppers.

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The twin-disc TS system can work at anything from 18m to 54m, with border spreading done by changing the configuration of the vanes.

ClickTS gives you a manually adjusted system, while the pukka AutoTS version has an electrical actuator to reposition the inner section of the two vanes on each disc.

That engages the short border vanes that throw the fertiliser higher at lower speed, resulting in a sharper cut-off of the spread pattern.

The electric system, operated from the tractor cab, can either be fitted to the two spinners or just one, with ClickTS then fitted to the other in case the operator wants to go around the field perimeter spreading opposite to the usual direction.

Automated spreading on-off control when approaching and leaving headlands minimises over-application and the ZG-TS also has section control in eight stages – two up on the ZG-B Ultra Hydro – to trim the working width for angled headlands and other areas where over-application can be avoided.

Future developments could include the 16-stage section control available with the mounted ZA-TS spreader, which can spread to just the outer extremes of the pattern on one side, and Argus Twin, Amazone’s radar-based distribution monitoring system.

For now, though, the ZG-TS 8200 Hydro with hydraulic rather than PTO drive to the spinners is priced at £67,690 including weigh-cells as standard, along with a hydraulically operated hopper cover, sieves and mudguards, tray test kit, air or hydraulic brakes and 520/85 R42 tyres.

Sulky-Burel UK

Other manufacturers of trailed broadcasters are also stepping up the spreading and control technology available on their machines – including French company Sulky-Burel with two new models incorporating the firm’s Econov width management system.

The 7,200 litre XT100 and 9,500 litre XT130 already have Sulky-Burel’s Epsilon spreading system, which uses two vanes per disc, each with two channels of different lengths accelerating and throwing the fertiliser at different velocities.

The XT single- and tandem-axle spreaders typically work at 24m or up to 50m with good quality fertilisers, with an adjustable chute for each disc determining the feed-on point and therefore the spreading width.

On the Econov versions, an electric actuator for each of the feed-on chutes responds to GPS signals processed by a TeeJet Matrix 840 GS guidance and video camera display to bring the working width in and out as required.

It adjusts in six steps from either both sides or right across from one side to the other, leaving just the outer section of the pattern on one side if need be.

The spreaders have a new hopper with the two regulating doors now positioned right at the end of the single feed belt.

Sulky-Burel engineers say that the volume applied is adjusted in line with the three-dimensional crescent-shaped spread pattern to ensure the correct rate in areas where section control is activated.

List prices for the two spreaders are £53,890 and £57,180, respectively.

Bredal (Keith Rennie Machinery)

Bredal has moved from single to twin hydraulically-driven feed belts on its new F Series trailed spreaders. That enables the feed rate to each disc to be adjusted accurately when the new section control facility adjusts the spreading width on one side, to reduce over-application in wedge-shaped areas of the field.

This is hooked up via Isobus on the 5,700 litre F8 and 7,600 litre F10 spreaders, which differ from other trailed spreaders in having inward rotating discs that provide a double/double overlap pattern from 12m to 40m wide, depending on the material being spread.

Spreading width can be brought in on one side only or both sides simultaneously in up to six steps either side – 12 in total.

This is done by new electric actuators, says the company, which adjust the position of the stainless steel feed-on chutes. That in turn alters where the fertiliser meets the disc vanes and determines how far it is thrown.

Headland control is also standard – it switches spreading on and off at the right point for approaching or leaving the headland.

A bonus of having this technology is that operators can also use an Isobus terminal to select the application rate and spread width for any material.

It can also be used to alter the application rate on the move, either manually or using GPS, to follow variable rate application maps. There are alarms for the belt drive, disc speed and other items, too.

Price of the Bredal F8 is £57,350.

Unia (Manterra)

Auto speed-related application and variable-rate application are the technology highlights of the Unia MXL trailed spreaders now being imported by Yorkshire firm Manterra.

The 5,500 litre and 8,200 litre twin disc machines are designed for spreading widths up to 36m, with hydraulic drive to a single hopper belt controlled by the Müller-supplied UTS controller with Track-Leader guidance software.

An unusual feature of the spreading system is that there are two small hydraulically driven augers to meter fertiliser coming off the belt on to each disc via a feed-on chute.

This means the flow can be adjusted on one side when the hydraulically positioned border spreading deflector is being used.

Manterra prices the Unia MXL spreaders at £22,995 and £24,995 while the simpler RCW models start at £16,950 for the 8,200 litre version.