The Agritechnica prize for technological innovations
The last edition of Agritechnica, scheduled for next February, has been postponed due to the health emergency to November 2023, from 12 to 18. The competition for technological innovations promoted by the event has nevertheless seen the announcement of the winners, chosen from 164 candidate projects, which will be awarded at a ceremony scheduled for early 2022.
The only gold medal - the Agritechnica Innovation Award in gold - went to the autonomous tool carrier Nexat-Tractor System, offered by the German company by the same name. An interchangeable carrier vehicle - electrically driven with a width of up to 24 m, capable of handling the various operating phases from tillage, seeding and crop protection to harvesting - thanks to modular technologies applicable with quick change.
The vehicle - which has been field-tested over the past three years - is equipped with a 270-degree swivel cab installed on one side of the chassis, for activity monitoring and road transport.
Sixteen silver medals - Innovation Award in silver - covered a wide range of products for the most diverse agricultural processes. These include Agco/Fendt's Automatic Dust Extraction System for cleaning the engine combustion air of tractors and agricultural machinery, which recognises the level of dirt in the air filter during operation or while driving and cleans it without having to be removed.
Then the Terranimo and Cemos Auto Header from Claas, which respectively allow the operator to monitor the level of compaction taking place during ongoing vehicle operations, in order to contain or diversify action to safeguard the soil; and to adjust the auger cutter bars on combine harvesters so that once the operator has specified the nominal reel immersion depth in the crop and the nominal horizontal position, these are automatically adjusted as the crop height changes.
Finally, the two silver medals went to New Holland Agriculture. The first is for the OptiSpread Automation System for combine harvesters, a chopped material distribution system with direct metering technology for combine harvesters, which provides uniform lateral distribution for effective precision farming that reduces operator intervention and leaves the ground in optimal condition for the next harvest. The second was for the Big Baler Automation system for balers, which combines automatic swath guidance with automatic steering and automatic bale weight setting, maximising productivity, fuel efficiency and comfort when using New Holland's BigBaler Plus and BigBaler High Density square balers and tractors.
The solution, which has been awarded for its high level of practical relevance, thus enables a constant bale weight that simplifies downstream logistics planning.
