Germany

Agrarwirtschaft Schwanebeck GmbH, Germany.

Karl-Heinz Klietz, Managing director,
39397 Schwanebeck, on the XERION 3800:

"The XERION is much more versatile than a tractor with centre-pivot steering, so we can also use it for other types of work."

Previously, Agrarwirtschaft Schwanebeck GmbH used a tractor with centre-pivot steering for heavy cultivation work. Managing directors Karl-Heinz Klietz and Christian Klietz Jr. tell us why the tractor with centre-pivot steering was replaced with a XERION 3800.

On the eastern edge of the Magdeburger Börde, Agrarwirtschaft Schwanebeck GmbH farms around 2,000 hectares of arable land and maintains a dairy herd of 200 cows. In addition, a second, 600 hectare arable farm around 70 km away is farmed from here. An 8m-wide giant Smaragd cultivator, a Vario cultivator with a 4.7 m working width, and an 11 furrow reversible plough are available for the various cultivation activities. Up to the end of 2007, these machines were pulled by a 350 HP tractor with centre-pivot steering.

"When, after a seven year period of use, it was time to make a new investment, we used the opportunity to test out a new XERION 3800" says managing director Karl-Heinz Klietz. It was pure chance that led to the XERION having to prove its worth on extremely wet ground. However: "It won us over right from the start - for both cultivation or ploughing work" claims Christian Klietz Jr. "To enable a comparison, we used the same machine on the same piece of land but pulled by the tractor with centre-pivot steering. But the XERION had better traction power and used less fuel."

"Another point is that the tractor with centre-pivot steering is really only suitable for tillage. The XERION is much more versatile, and can also be used for transportation purposes" says Karl-Heinz Klietz, thereby pointing out another important decisive factor. He also sees crab steering as another advantage of the XERION, since it permits a relatively wide tyre contact area without using dual wheels.

Depending on the soil conditions, the XERION 3800 (which is fitted with a GPS pilot) can process 6 to 7 hectares per hour with an 8m-wide cultivator at Schwanebeck. The speed is between 12 and 14 km/h on normal ground and 10 km/h on mountainous ground. Even when carrying out the second pass at a depth of up to 15 or 20 cm, the XERION pulls the cultivator at 12 km/h. The fuel consumption for stubble processing is between 6 and 6.5 litres per hectare, reaching between 9 and 10 litres per hectare for deeper work. "In all cases, working with the XERION uses 1 to 2 litres less fuel per hectare than we used with the previous tractor" says Christian Klietz. Despite the good consumption values, Schwanebeck would like a 200 to 300 litre additional tank for the XERION so that it can be used for double-shift operation without requiring refuelling.