Organic farmer Gerhard Forster operates in the region of Lower Austria, specialising in threshed crops such as spelt, emmer and einkorn wheat, lentils, and pumpkins which are used to make seed oil. Since early 2020, Mr Forster has used a Pöttinger Aerosem 4002 ADD pneumatic seed drill in combination with a Lion 403 power harrow to establish his crops, benefitting from the precision farming packages available to him.
At the heart of the operation is the ISOBUS CCI 1200 terminal with the Seed Complete package. This enables the use of variable rate control and section control, facilitated by the drill’s electric metering system. The section control system uses the IDS distributor head, working in conjunction with the automatic control to adjust the working width in one-metre sections.
Using this technology, it is also possible to exchange data and communicate with the agrirouter data exchange platform and the Next Farming field indexing software. All operational data is recorded and sent remotely to these cloud-based platforms so that Mr Forster can evaluate the information at a later date.
“The CCI 1200 opens up a lot of opportunities. All my ISOBUS machines can be operated using one control terminal. By communicating with agrirouter, the machine data from all of my machines – regardless of manufacturer – can be transmitted to NEXT Machine Management and Next Farming. I can immediately find all the data I need for documenting my operations. Information on fertiliser and sowing rates is always available and can be traced seamlessly, even over a period of years,” said Mr Forster.
He added that documentation is easy to create and save. Jobs can be created using the in-cab terminal before work begins and data is wirelessly transferred using a mobile data network as soon as the task is complete.
Mr Forster has also been impressed with how the machines have operated, despite the difficult conditions in autumn 2020.
“The Dual Disc coulters on the Aerosem did a great job. Despite the difficult conditions, all our autumn sowing jobs were completed by the end of November. This year I had the opportunity to do some contract work with the seed drill because it works so well in our region, even in the most adverse conditions,” he explained, before adding. “There are still many advantages open to me in terms of data management and machine control.”
Having already seen an increase in output thanks to the purchase of the Aerosem and Lion combination, Mr Forster intends to manage his 95-hectare farm on a site-specific basis, something he says is already underway thanks to the technology package supplied by Pöttinger.