Customer portrait Mts. Polling, Bronneger (The Netherlands)
In Bronneger (Drenthe) – between Borger and Gasselte – Robert Polling and Erik Polling run a farm. They produce starch potatoes, seed potatoes, onions, sugar beets, barley and wheat. They use a Farmax spading machine for soil preparation for these crops. Erik Polling is happy to explain his choice for spading and the Farmax spading machine.
Over 20 years of experience with Farmax spading machines
Mts. Polling was founded by father and uncle over 40 years ago.
Thanks to Polling’s modern machinery, all activities performed by the company can be realised internally. Because Polling was able to grow to 650 hectares of soil over the years, they have two Farmax spading machines. These two spading machines give them the possibility to sow directly after spading, a feature Polling happily makes use of.
The soil is suitable for spading
Polling uses two Farmax LRP Profis with a width of 3 metres (construction year 2015 & 2017). The soil types Polling uses to cultivate crops are sand, peat and loam. One of the spading machines is equipped with an 80 cm cage roller, and the other spading machine is equipped with a roof ring roller.
The choice to equip their spading machines with these rollers is related to their preference of having as many smaller clumps in the soil as possible. According to Polling, a roller harrow makes the soil too fine in some places. The combination of spading and rolling results in a better water balance and a more oxygen-rich soil, which, in turn, results in better rain water drainage. In addition, they also observed faster crop emergence in spring. Spading mixes the top layer, resulting in even warming.
‘No nonsense’
Polling has been working with Farmax for over 20 years.
Erik; ‘We started with a Rapide, but after further development of the LRP Profi, this machine fit our company better. Ever since, we have happily used Farmax LRP Profi spading machines.
Polling is happy with the performance of the Farmax spading machines at the farm over the years. Over the past years, they have never had ‘any nonsense’ with the Farmax, the farmer states. Polling also considers the straightforward configuration of the Farmax spading machine a benefit. According to Erik, someone with little spading experience can deliver good work using a Farmax. In case of ploughing, this is a lot more complex.
Moreover, Polling has to spend little time on maintenance. Erik; “The spading blades are, of course, replaced when they wear, but we do this internally. The drive chain (with cam coupling) to the rotor axle has only been replaced once in the past 20 years.”
Download the free magazine of Farmax spaders and seeders
In this magazine, we will explain the spading method of soil preparation and state its advantages in comparison with ploughing. There will also be a brief explanation of all types of spaders and several customers share their experience with our spaders.
