The conditions
The land worked, which comprised two fields of 320 and 170 hectares respectively, is situated near the town of Chaplygin, approximately 360 km south east of Moscow in a stoneless black earth region with favourable arable farming conditions (pH value 5.8, humus content 6.4 percent). The yield-limiting factor here is the water. The area has an annual precipitation of 400 – 450 millimetres.
On both fields, the crop farmed prior to the maize was winter wheat. Directly after the harvest, the land underwent shallow tillage by a Horsch Joker 12 RT. This was followed by non-turning cultivation including the introduction of fertiliser. In the spring, the land underwent shallow tillage by a Horsch Tiger 10 LT cultivator.
The condition of the land at the start of the world record attempt was, unlike that of the test land, optimum as far as the surface was concerned because the soil was well dried. Deeper down, however, a lot of damp black earth was encountered. The test land could not be used because this had been ploughed and was too wet due to plough pan formation.
“From the TELEMATICS recordings, it can be seen that we worked under realistic conditions. The first field had a very irregular shape, with wedge-shaped corners, for example”, explains CLAAS project manager Harald Lob. Florian Ermer, project manager for Horsch, adds: “We had to stop three times because, on one occasion, the drilling assemblies became blocked due to a driving error and, on two other occasions, paper had ended up in the metering devices. These are also factors that arise under real agricultural conditions.”
After it had set the world record, the team continued its work, tilling the remaining land and leaving behind two cleanly sown fields.
