Focus on technology and arable farming – the HORSCH Practical Field Days 2018 were the highlight for many farmers
The HORSCH Practical Field Days that took place from mid-May until Mid-July were a huge success. During eight weeks about 2500 people visited the company headquarters in Schwandorf. All farmers registered in advance with their dealers for the event that takes place every two years. Every day an exclusive program was presented to partly several visitor groups at the same time. One of the key aspects of the Practical Field Days was to see the HORSCH products live in the field. But arable farming, too, played a major role and was dealt with in various trial settings in the field and in intensive speeches.
The Practical Field Days always started with a speech about arable farming. Often it was Michael Horsch himself who looked back on the origins of the HORSCH Maschinen GmbH and provided the audience with an insight into his visions of the future and into concrete topics HORSCH will concentrate on in the years to come. After the speech, the guests went to the adjacent fields for the machine demonstrations. A wide range of HORSCH machines for tillage and sowing were shown in practice – always adapted to the regional conditions, the farm sizes and the climate conditions of the guests. This maximum individuality and the absolute focus on the customer have always been HORSCH core competences. The machine demonstrations were followed by a tour through the test fields in the demo garden. Here, too, the requirement was to deal with questions that are interesting for the region of the respective guests. In maize, the tests with regard to seedbed preparation, row spacing, coulter pressure and seed embedding were of particular interest. In addition, the guests were informed about a new and exciting topic: single grain sowing for wheat. Here the focus was on seed sizes, fertiliser and growth regulator strategies. The nutrient supply of young plants always is an enormous challenge. Therefore, the customers got a general idea of the fertiliser placement options while sowing. The field tests with regard to Crop Relay, a technology to cultivate two cultures at the same time, resulted in interesting discussions about the future of arable farming.
The guests then had lunch in the HORSCH company restaurant Le Café and after that went back to fields where the focus now was on plant protection. Farmers from all over the world were thrilled by the HORSCH Leeb plant protection sprayers and especially by BoomControl, the prize-winning and unique boom control system. During the Practical Field Days, the demonstration area amounted to 13 hectare in total. 28 different machines were demonstrated with a total working width of 286 m. The power of all tractors that were used for the demonstrations amounted to a total of unbelievable 5630 HP.
The fact that the HORSCH Maschinen GmbH is a global player was reflected in the number of guests from abroad. About 70 % of the visitors came from different countries all over the world to participate in the Practical Field Days. The largest groups were from France, the Ukraine and the Czech Republic with more than 200 visitors respectively. Even small groups from Australia and New Zealand came to the HORSCH headquarters at Schwandorf.
During those 8 weeks about 2800 hotel rooms where booked for the visitors of the Practical Field Day. All in all, 74 HORSCH employees were involved in the Practical Field Days to guarantee a smooth course of the event.
