The Vento 8 is a new electric drive air seeder from Spaldings for OSR, grass seed and cover crops. Designed for mounting on cultivators, subsoilers, rollers and harrows; seed and granular herbicides are distributed from up to eight ‘splash plate’ outlets across any width to 6m.
Made by German firm Lehner, and the result of three years of development and testing, the pneumatic seeder has a 230-litre steel hopper with seed level sensor and full-width agitator, and the cartridge-type metering roller can be pulled out for cleaning or to reconfigure the cell rings for different seeds and granules. Three cell sizes are available – for oilseed rape, for grass and cover crops, and for granular herbicides – and blank segments can be added or removed for different working widths.
A broad range of metering roller speeds and application rates is provided by the 12v electric drive motor, with consistent rates across varying ground speeds provided by automatic control using GPS or a speed signal from the tractor. Seed rate and fan speed can be adjusted on the move using turn-and-click dials on the control box. Users can store up to 20 calibration settings for different seeds and granules, and the controller also displays working hours, single job and accumulated area readings.
Available to purchase online and through the company’s sales/service agents in the UK and Ireland, the Vento 8 costs £4,975. This price includes the mounting frame, control panel and cabling, 25m of flexible pipe and eight stainless steel broadcasting deflectors.
