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The earth must cared for so that you gain the best possible use from it, and the VarioGrip is a huge advantage in this respect.
Jens Thomsen, manager farming enterprise, Denmark - Fendt 720, 828 Vario with VarioGrip
The earth must cared for so that you gain the best possible use from it, and the VarioGrip is a huge advantage in this respect.

VarioGrip - a decisive advantage

Jens Thomsen is Operations Manager with Boelsgård A/S near Brovst, with a 270-hectare farm, which is suitable for just one tractor - a Fendt 828 Vario with VarioGrip.

There are, quite literally, almost all types of soils at Boelsgård A/S just outside Brovst. “We have yellow clay, blue clay, lake bed soil with 15% humus, sharp sand and everything in-between on our 270 hectares, shared by two owners,” says Operations Manager Jens Thomsen. He has been running the business for seventeen years and, whereas several people used to do the work previously, he is now running things by himself.His combine harvester was sold off a few years ago. So he now handles all tasks apart from threshing. In a situation such as this there is need for only one tractor, which, however, does 1,000 hours a year. “The custom is to replace the tractor after every 3,000 hours approximately, or every third year, or thereabouts, for the latest and best,” he says. That is why he is looking for a new tractor in the summer of 2015.

The earth must be cared for

One of the all-essential factors for Jens Thomsen is to take care of the earth so that you gain the best possible use from it now and in the future. “Lake-bed soil is particularly difficult to work with, and the ground pressure is vital. To keep the ground pressure low, the tyre pressure has to be low, and the VarioGrip is a huge advantage in this respect,” he says. With this system the tyre pressure can be changed from 0.6 bar to 2.5 bar within seven or eight minutes.

Good to know when driving. “On my way out onto the fields I can set the system to lower the tyre pressure with just a few taps on the screen, which is very easy to see. And when I’m out on the fields the tyre pressure is lowered to the desired level,” he advises. Conversely, he can ask the system to increase the tyre pressure several minutes before driving off the fields. It just can’t get any easier.

Less wheel slip and less fuel

Apart from protecting the earth from compression, a lower tyre pressure also reduces wheel slip when large loads are being pulled. “Ploughing in hard soil or harrowing where there’s some depth requires considerable power to be applied. This results in wheel slip, but I’ve noticed that the wheel slip is reduced by a couple of percentage points, from around 11 to around 9 per cent,” says Jens Thomsen. That may not sound like a lot on the face of it, but over 270 hectares it’s an appreciable saving of both fuel and tyre wear.