Kartoffelhof Nüssau GmbH

Horst Brammer is the Operations Manager at Kartoffelhof Nüssau GmbH in Germany, a part of the Heilmann AG. Within the operations at Schleswig-Holstein they grow 370 hectares of potatoes annually for consumption. 

“We produce high quality potatoes and sell them from our packing plant Heilmann AG. We sell potatoes in small packages to customers which means we sell small and uniformly potatoes. Because of this, we decided for the first time this year to grow three rows in one bed to reach a better distribution of the plants and more consistent and uniform size. Quality is the most important factor within our business. We do not want to create tramlines in our beds, which means we drive with the sprayer above two beds with a track width of 3.6 meters. This also ensures a very stable boom and a very safe ride for the operator.” 

Three years ago, we were looking to purchase a new sprayer. We received a demonstration by Agrifac and were impressed by the stable boom balance. In the beginning we thought that the price was too high for us to consider a self-propelled and believed a trailed sprayer could do the same. We soon found out this was not the case due to efficiency and soil protection to ensure quality of our produce is upheld. We got back in touch with Agrifac and decided to purchase a Condor Endurance. 

At the moment, we spray 200 litres per hectare and with a tank capacity of 8,000 litres, we are able to spray 40 hectares with one load. Colleagues from the Netherlands told us that they spray with much less water but to implement this now would be too risky for us, instead we will reduce it in steps to achieve the same over time. We plan to go from 200 to 180 litres and later to 150 litres; such a reduction would increase the efficiency of the machine dramatically. 

In addition, one of our requirements is to use as much plant protection as needed but as little as possible. Fulfilling this requirement is only possible if the plant protection is distributed optimally and the most accurately on the field, dependent on each individual plants’ requirements. With the Agrifac sprayer this is possible. With the HighTechAir (HTA) system, we can regulate the droplet size during operations, for example when wind is increasing and getting stronger, we are able to make the droplets bigger in size and so we are not as sensitive to wind during these condition changes, therefore enabling is to continue spraying in all weather conditions, whilst also ensuring that the plant still receives the exact amount of care it needs.  

The perfect working GPS-System avoids overlaps and we have nearly no spray liquid in the tank after spraying. That was the main point as to why we decided to invest in an Agrifac sprayer, additionally we are simply enthusiastic about the driving comfort, the easy operation and the boom stability. We also use the Norac boom levelling system in our sprayer for the boom stability and it is working impeccably. The driver can do other important things and does not have to concentrate on the boom stability which is fantastic and helps increase our efficiency.”