A Riverina designed and manufactured bulk spreader was awarded the Tractor and Machinery Association Award at last week’s Henty Machinery Field Days.
The TMA award recognises the best new Australian designed and built agricultural machine and is judged by a panel of independent judges.
It was presented by TMA chief executive officer Gary Northover and Henty Machinery Field Days director Nigel Scheetz to Landaco Equipment principal Peter Connor.
Mr Scheetz said the winning machine, the Landaco Maxispread TS12000, was well engineered.
“A lot of thought has gone into the utilisation of the machine for both lime and urea applications,’’ Mr Scheetz said.
“It has the capability to spread out to 3.0 metre centres for controlled traffic and other variable widths the customer needs to have.
“It can be used for both lime and urea applications, and tests have shown it is capable of accurately spreading 100 kilograms a hectare up to 30m.
“There are a lot of options including load cells and variable tyre sizes – its serviceability is good.’’
Landaco director, Peter Connor, said the 12 tonne Maxispread was set up for full variable rate control to top dress urea, and featured large 700 milimetre spinners.
It can also double as a field or chaser bin and boasts good ground clearance.
The spinner assembly can be detached to allow for feeding grain, laying gravel on roads or shifting material.
“The machine is set up with weight scales, to be compatible with a multitude of electronic controllers on tractors and has large flotation tyres on 3.0m controlled traffic,’’ Mr Connor said.
“Our 25 tonne crop cruiser is built on the same 3m controlled traffic spec.
“The machine is designed so the precision urea spinners can be taken off and a new 800mm dished four-blade spinner disc attached for lime and gypsum.’’
Mr Connor said the machine had been tested in the range of 18 to 24 km/h at 60-120kg/ha.
“We have a Mark 4 divider for around the 100kg/ha and an adapter guide for up to 300kg/ha,’’ he said.
“All of that is interchangeable – there are cameras to monitor the feed of the product off the back of the machine from the tractor cabin.
“The machines do have an access ladder on the front for viewing, and safety bars on the back.
“There are options on the 10 tonne and over Maxispread machines where the auto door closes automatically when the spinners shut down.’’
Mr Connor said the majority of the machine was made from stainless steel to increase the longevity.
“Everything is grit blasted and painted in high grade two pack enamel as an individual part, and then assembled in our Wagga factory,’’ he said.
“We have had good feedback at Henty with growers liking the constant development of the product and adaptation to the new technologies available.
“We are changing out of basic mechanical ground drives to full electronic drives.
“People like the simplicity of the machine and the modular concept where the machine can adapt to different wheel bases and tyre specs, spinner systems for various widths and controlled traffic.’’
