High-flow TLX spreader lifts output

For BW Upton, Hall Farm, near Ellerdine, Shropshire, the move to a TL Exacta with GEOSPREAD just two seasons ago has been viewed as a spreading revelation.

“When we first moved to GEOSPREAD, we couldn’t believe the accuracy we could get with fertiliser spreading,” explains Ed Upton. “It is a game-changer for anyone looking to reduce overlaps and improve application accuracy.”

The only drawback he found with the spreader was its output when applying very high dose rates.

“Productivity was fantastic on cereal crops, but anything needing a high rate saw forward speeds tumble,” he says. “We do a lot of contract spreading at up to 850kg/ha on carrots and up to 1,000kg/ha on potatoes. At those rates, we were down to 4-5kph.”

The answer he sought came from the high-flow TLX GEOSPREAD – a machine specifically engineered to provide high flow.

On 24m tramlines applying high rates to root crops, Mr Upton has more than doubled his forward speed with the arrival of the TLX model. He says the farm can also spread potash at around 20-22kph.

“It’s unbelievably accurate, and our output has grown enormously,” he says. “We’ve used local firm SCS to tray test and check, but they have made no improvement to the spreader’s performance. They just confirmed it’s bang-on.”

Supplied by Battlefield Machinery and used with a Tellus Pro dual screen universal terminal in one of the farm’s John Deere 6215R tractors, he says the spreader’s ISOBUS terminal offers scope to simultaneously show GPS guidance and spreader control.

“Information is right where you want it,” he says. “All fields are mapped and stored, which makes spreading easy – you just drive in and start the pto, and the spreader does the rest.”

“I wouldn’t want to go fertiliser spreading without GEOSPREAD,” he adds. “It’s one of those rare machines that genuinely saves you money.”