Novag invites to the first press event and presents the new Novag T-ForcePlus 250 no-till drill to an exclusive circle of German and Swiss trade press representatives.
Novag organized its first own press event on the grounds of the Triesdorf Agricultural Training Institute in Bavaria, with excellent presentation opportunities in theory and practice. In addition to the new Novag T-ForcePlus 250 with 3m working width and 12 openers, the Novag team also sent its little sister Novag T-ForcePlus 150 and its bigger sister Novag T-ForcePlus 350 into the field. On a catch crop area, all three models planted maize at 50 cm row spacing. At the same time, a sugar cane-based organic fertilizer was applied with the openers to help start the maize.
Cross recessed openers Novag T-SlotPlus
The agricultural journalists paid particular attention to the Novag T-SlotPlus cross-slot openers, which are at the heart of all Novag direct seeding implements and which Novag sells exclusively worldwide. Cedric Köster explained its function, mode of operation (T-shaped seed slot) and the associated advantages for germination conditions, root growth and soil life.
Customer testimonials
In addition to the specialist editors, a Novag customer was also invited: Dutchman Peter Bouman manages an arable farm with heavily hilly terrain in Tuscany, Italy, and is switching to conservation agriculture with no-till due to intensive erosion problems. He is a customer of the first Novag T-ForcePlus 250 built in France and saw his machine for the first time at the press event.
The new model
Cedric Köster, Customer Success Manager at Novag GmbH, explained the technology of the new Novag T-ForcePlus 250 with all its functions and equipment options. With a choice of working widths between 2 and 3 m, it closes the previous product gap between the Novag T-ForcePlus 150 (1 – 2 m) and Novag T-ForcePlus 350 (3 m) models.
It is a completely new, particularly compact machine that has been specially developed for small-scale farms in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In addition to small fields and slopes, the challenges there are heavy soils that are hard in the summer when it is dry and usually wet and not very stable in the fall. This calls for compact no-till technology that provides sufficient coulter pressure in summer but not too much weight in the fall. “This is only possible by being able to shed ballast in wet conditions,” says Ramzi Frikha, creative head of development work at Novag.
He has therefore designed the new Novag T-ForcePlus 250 with a low initial weight and flexible ballasting. In the largest version with a working width of 3 m and the maximum number of 12 openers, it weighs only 3.9 t empty and can therefore sow even in wet conditions in the fall. In dry and hard soil conditions in summer, the machine can be ballasted with up to 1.95 t as required. Depending on the number of coulters, the Novag T-ForcePlus 250 has a tractor output of 80-130 hp. Read more about the new machine here.
Milestones & sales targets
Ramzi Frikha is not only head of development at Novag, but also founder, CEO and export manager. He presented the history and milestones of his company from the first idea in New Zealand, decisive encounters and partnerships, the foundation as a French agricultural technology start-up to the globally active no-till specialist that Novag is today. He emphasized the particular importance of the German market for the company’s success to date.
Lucas Zickermann, Sales and Product Manager at Novag GmbH, backed up this success story with figures. He revealed the sales targets associated with the launch of the new Novag T-ForcePlus 250 for Germany and the new markets of Austria and Switzerland. A total of 40 machines will be running in Germany by the summer – a target that Novag wants to achieve every year in this market in the future. In Austria, the first machine, a Novag T-ForcePlus 350, has been in operation since April 2023, and Lucas Zickermann believes that the new Novag T-ForcePlus 250 series has a good chance of achieving a double-digit number of machines within the next two years. The new series should also help with market entry in Switzerland, where Novag has already conducted a special demonstration tour for customers and potential sales partners in the spring.
More information on the milestones of Novag SAS and the sales concept for the DACH region can be found here.
In all three countries, Novag sees potential for its no-till technology in the in-house mechanization of smaller farms as well as in inter-company use by machinery rings and contractors.
No-till & Conservation Agriculture
“All Novag customers are ultimately concerned with the health of their soils – erosion protection, improved rainfall infiltration and load-bearing capacity,” summarized Maik Freitag, Sales and Field Engineer at Novag GmbH. Together with Prof. Dr. Ulrich Groß, independent expert for agricultural engineering and plant technology at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences, he presented general principles and new findings on no-till and the Conservation Agriculture (CA) cultivation system to the trade press.
Both speakers sensitized the press guests to the “correct” use of these and similar terms such as conservation tillage, regenerative agriculture or hybrid agriculture. Some of these terms are not clearly defined, making it difficult to interpret scientific work, for example, and yet they are increasingly being used in marketing by the agricultural industry.
Maik Freitag explained what is meant by the terms regenerative agriculture and regenerative agricuture as well as conservation agriculture and Prof. Dr. Groß explained the differences between conventional and conservation tillage (mulch sowing), strip tillage for row crops and the complete absence of tillage (no-till). “Soil cultivation also takes place in conservation farming systems with no-till, just not mechanically. Thanks to diverse crop rotations and plant residues, the root systems of the plants and soil organisms such as earthworms take over this task,” he said.
You can read more about no-till and the Conservation Agriculture cultivation system here.
Personal contact & networking
“We are delighted with a successful first press event and would like to thank the agricultural trade press for their great interest. Personal contact with the editorial offices is important to us, because networking is a key success factor in the no-till scene. We invite all interested parties to attend,” said Ramzi Frikha, founder, CEO and Export Manager in Triesdorf.
