More than 2500 farmers from around the world attended the Horsch practical field days that took place between mid-May until mid-July at the company headquarters in Schwandorf, Germany. While in-field demonstrations were a key aspect of the days, presentations and discussions of the latest arable farming techniques were popular with attendees.
Starting with a presentation by Michael Horsch covering the origins of the Horsch Maschinen GmbH, he provided the audience with an insight into his visions of the future and the key areas Horsch will concentrate on in the years to come. The programme included working machine demonstrations adapted to the regional conditions, the farm sizes and the climate conditions of the guests. This level of customisation highlights Horsch’s focus on the requirements of the customer rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
In the maize test fields, visitors reviewed the effects of seedbed preparation, row spacing, coulter pressure and seed embedding. Single grain sowing for wheat was a popular topic that drew much interest, focusing on seed sizes, fertiliser and growth regulator strategies. Nutrient supply to young plants always is an enormous challenge and the options for fertiliser placement while sowing were explored while the field tests of Crop Relay, a technology to cultivate two cultures at the same time, resulted in interesting discussions about the future of arable farming.
The practical field days event, which runs every two years, attracted visitors from across Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. The 13ha demonstration hosted 28 different machines a total working width of 286m.
