How to correct twin disc pattern cock-up?

I use the book ,app, settings and away you go.

If I got the trays out I would be head scratching like you.
After all the settings have been tested in a lab.

I am using solid for 1st & 3rd pass with liquid for the 2nd.

That's the thing, they should have tested these products far more accurately than we can do in the field with the indoor fertiliser testing hall they have. Problem is if in the field that sub 5% accuracy is not being achieved, you start to seriously question the use of solid fertiliser.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
That's the thing, they should have tested these products far more accurately than we can do in the field with the indoor fertiliser testing hall they have. Problem is if in the field that sub 5% accuracy is not being achieved, you start to seriously question the use of solid fertiliser.

Is it the the machinery or the product though ? If product varies in hardness and size then the machine testing is merely a guide

IMO if you want to spread accurately liquid is the only choice - N is the most expensive and important input we make, it's worth getting 100% right

Seeing some dramatic stripes locally this year good farmers with good equipment and operators, give me a bit of scotch anytime by comparison !
 

marcot

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Is it the the machinery or the product though ? If product varies in hardness and size then the machine testing is merely a guide

IMO if you want to spread accurately liquid is the only choice - N is the most expensive and important input we make, it's worth getting 100% right

Seeing some dramatic stripes locally this year good farmers with good equipment and operators, give me a bit of scotch anytime by comparison !
Yeah its enough to drive you to drink isn't it?
 
Give me no stripes and no scorch , but the problem most of the time with striping with solid is when the sprayer man jumps of the sprayer because it's to windy to spray and thinks to him self I'll go and do some fertying ,,,,,, I ve got neighbours who think they can spread fert when it's blowing a empty 20 lt glyphosate can across the yard , and they wonder why they get stripes .
I've also got neighbours who wouldn't dream of having SCS on the farm because they will get a bill for £250 ,,,,, yet they are spreading near on 100 k of product
Personally I will spray when I won't flick fert about because of breezy weather
 

colhonk

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Bought an Amazone Z am in the early 90`s, it was great,accurate,very little wear on the vanes,the only repair was a new spring on the agitator chain tensioner. no rust. put it in for a new one 3 years ago, it is very hard to set right,vanes have a lot of wear already, most disappointed with it.
 
You won't Beat double double over lap like bogballe, bredal, and tulip (lely). Simple and fool proof. Only adjustment to be made is the rate Wouldn't take a present of an Amazone/Kuhn/kv/sulky.

Had a bogballe and to be honest I would never have another ,,,,,, but that's my opinion ,,',,,,, get on far better with our kuhn ,,,,, only problem I've had with kuhn is the head muppet in Telford , so for me if KRM sold the Rauch spreader that would be perfect
 
Didn't like the very complex vanes , very expensive when it came to replace .
Very aggressive on some fert ,,,,, can make some N into dust ,,,, causing over applying behind the spreader , some times when we tray tested it was a third more in the 10 ft behind the spreader , this was with good sp5 fert as well .
Headland spreading was a mixed bag as well , when you reversed the discs although it placed the fert to the hedge fairly well it never threw the fert far enough into the field , the double double overlap bit went out of the window there and as we all know the headlands are a big part of the field ,
Gearboxes , expensive , mine ate 2 of them , bad luck maybe ,
Another bit that I couldn't get my head around was the setting the spreader at the right angle , let's say +2 , theory flys out the window when you start spreading on banks .
My spreader met a timely death when a big bag loop broke and dropped 600 kg in fairly quickly

Blessing in disguise for me, a nice simple basic Kuhn 30.1 turned up , just the drop on point to adjust and over the trays very accurate ,
I realise that this is my opinion , there are many happy users out there , may be I'm just a fussy git.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
I recall in Profi magazine a few months ago they tested 4 or 5 spreaders for all sorts of things. The Amazones results were so bad they wouldn't publish them!
 
Another day, another tray test. Just as bad as before:
1462555568460.jpg


The pattern is consistent enough to know that there's a pattern problem. Weights in the collectors from I to IV were 30.5, 16.5 11.5 and 28 grams. A pretty huge % error.

Rang up the specialist at Amazone and they suggested some completely different vane settings to cure the problem. Tried them and improved things slightly, but still had the same pattern problem. In the end he said, "That's not too bad. You probably won't see a difference". I was grateful for his help, but not being able to see what a rubbish job we're making doesn't exactly fill me with joy.

Have seriously lost confidence in solid fert. I wonder how many other people are out there applying solid who aren't being anywhere near as accurate as they think they are.
 
Last edited:
Another day, another tray test. Just as bad as before:
View attachment 325170

The pattern is consistent enough to know that there's a pattern problem. Weights in the collectors from I to IV were 30.5, 16.5 11.5 and 28 grams. A pretty huge % error.

Rang up the specialist at Amazone and they suggested some completely different vane settings to cure the problem. Tried them and improved things slightly, but still had the same pattern problem. In the end he said, "That's not too bad. You probably won't see a difference". I was grateful for his help, but not being able to see what a rubbish job we're making doesn't exactly fill me with joy.

Have seriously lost confidence in solid fert. I wonder how many other people are out there applying solid who aren't being anywhere near as accurate as they think they are.

I will see if I can put up my last results ,,,,,, gran urea , it was as near to 100% perfect as you could get , lithan and double top were good enough for me and as I said I'm a fussy fecker .
Why don't you get SCS out for 250 squidlies they will put you right , it may be agitator problems but there good enough to know where to look ,,,,,,,, At your results Feldspar I would not be spreading ,,,,, disaster around the corner I reckon ,
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
I was relatively happy with my Amazone spreader which was SCS tested for every product every year..... until I got a drone! Striping which wasn't noticeable from the ground stood out quite obviously from above.

I went liquid last year and while it does have other issues to get your head around I don't regret the change one bit (yet!).
 
Another day out with the trays giving the same result to start:
Also have you seen striping from first application?

First two applications were DAP and Double Top and generally they appear visually to be OK. I used the book settings (adjusted a bit after one tray test) last year and everything looked OK. I'm not happy just for it to look OK though. That pattern (i.e. high in the tramline and at 12m) on every test we've done with this spreader so I know it's not right.

The control program in the box seems a bit useless too. Until we radically changed the vane settings it kept telling us to reduce the long vane setting and increase the short vane setting. In the end we got to this:
2016-05-06 12.37.09.jpg


Only problem was that we were at the limit of travel on both vanes. Hopeless!
 

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