Stapelbroek
Stapelbroek
Henning Stapelbroek has been managing a large-scale farm in Saxony-Anhalt for 2.5 years. On this challenging site, he has converted all arable farming to no-till. His most important machine for this task: a Novag 650 T-Force-Plus.
Being open to challenges and unusual concepts – that’s what characterizes Henning Stapelbroek. He can put both qualities to good use in his job. Since 2020, the 29-year-old has been in charge of arable farming at the agricultural cooperative in Tangermünde/Buch in Saxony-Anhalt, which covers 1,300 hectares.
No-till as the only alternative
“If you want to farm economically here, you can only do it with no-till,” says Stapelbroek. His approach: the cultivation costs for cereals must not be higher than the income he achieves with yields of two tons per hectare. This is the minimum yield he can achieve even in very dry years.
That is why it was clear when he took up his position that the entire arable area should only be cultivated using no-till farming. The farmer has the necessary experience for this. He had already worked a lot with no-till methods on his training farm and during his previous employment.
Stapelbroek’s most important machine is a Novag 650 T-Force-Plus with a working width of six meters and 24 openers with a row spacing of 25 centimetres. The farmer particularly appreciates the robustness of the machine, which is needed on the heavy soils directly on the Elbe to be able to reliably maintain the sowing depth.
“With the introduction of no-till, we have completely turned crop cultivation on its head,” explains Stapelbroek. For example, the crop rotation was significantly expanded. In addition to various cereals, he now grows grain maize, rapeseed, sunflowers, field beans and peas. Catch crops are the rule for almost all crops and fertilization has also been adapted. There is no longer a plow furrow.
One machine for all crops
The Novag is used for no-till drilling of all crops, whether winter oilseed rape, maize or field beans. So far, the machine has impressed him on many levels. “It starts with the fact that there is no Hairpinning, even with large amounts of straw,” says Stapelbroek. “The seeds always have good soil contact and don’t get stuck in the coarse organic material.”
It is particularly important to him that the machine copes well with the extremely varied soils, some of which are very hard. In his experience, the IntelliForcePlus electronic coulter pressure adjustment, which continuously optimizes the pressure depending on the soil resistance, proves its worth here.
Stapelbroek can follow this function via the Novag display in the tractor cab. “It’s crazy how the pressure on our sites jumps back and forth,” he reports. “Even on small areas, it often ranges from 80 bar to a maximum pressure of 200 bar. Without automatic coulter pressure adjustment, the sowing depth would definitely not be as uniform.”
Maize sowing is the supreme discipline
According to Stapelbroek, the machine really comes into its own when sowing maize – the supreme discipline of no-till farming. This is because maize needs well loosened, warm soil, especially in the start-up phase. And the Novag technology creates optimum conditions for this, whether on moist or dry soils.
Initially, he used a precision planter for sowing maize until he had a kind of key experience last year. When it started to rain, he had to abort sowing with the precision planter on heavy soils. He sowed the rest of the area with the Novag. “Although we didn’t even separate the grains, the plants on these areas were later much more vigorous and the maize stood up much better than on the conventionally tilled areas.”
Stapelbroek puts this down to the fact that the discs of the precision planter strongly compact the soil area around the seed, especially in moist, heavy soils. This delays warming and makes rooting more difficult. In contrast, there is virtually no compaction in this sensitive area when planting with the Novag T-Slot opener.
Singling with the Novag maize kit
Based on his positive experience, this year he planted the entire 80 hectares of grain maize on heavy soils with the Novag. To do this, he added the Novag maize kit to the machine, with which the grains can be separated before placement. Even if the placement quality does not quite reach the level of a single grain planter, Henning Stapelbroek is satisfied with the result.
This season, however, he had to contend with completely different conditions. The soils were very dry and hard at the time of sowing. “I wouldn’t have been able to get into the soil with the precision planter,” says Stapelbroek. The Novag had also reached its limits with a placement depth of five centimetres. “But we managed to get a clean deposit. And where the Novag can’t get in, a no-till drill can’t get in,” says Stapelbroek.
Another point that the farmer appreciates about the Novag is its variability. “The machine simply offers an incredible number of options,” says Stapelbroek. “If you want to use them, it’s brilliant.” And he wants to use these possibilities. Depending on the crop, he is always experimenting with different undersown crops or intercrop mixtures. This is made possible by a variable system with interchangeable seed hoppers and individually adjustable openers, which allow each crop to be sown at the optimum depth.
Four hoppers with four different components
He makes full use of these diverse adjustment options, particularly when sowing rapeseed. In addition to the fine rapeseed, he applies a catch crop mixture as a companion crop, under-root fertilization and slug pellets, either on the surface or in the soil, all in a single pass. “And everything goes exactly where it should,” says Stapelbroek happily. “We want someone to copy us in using four hoppers with four different components at the same time.”
He has also achieved initial success in winter cereals with his no-till concept and Novag. After two years of cultivation, he has already observed a significant reduction in the presence of trespe, the farm’s problem weed in cereals. Stapelbroek attributes this to the no-till system. Most of the trespene seeds in the upper soil layers have now emerged. As Novag only slits the soil and hardly disturbs it during sowing, no new seeds reach the top and the trespa pressure continues to decrease.
No more sandstorms in the village
Even the neighbors in the village noticed another effect of no-till. In the first year of cultivation with the Novag, they wondered why sandstorms no longer passed through the village in summer. Such sandstorms were common until then because the large, conventionally cultivated areas had been left open for a long time and were therefore susceptible to wind erosion.
Henning Stapelbroek is not surprised: “No-till protects the soil much better, either through a catch crop or a mulch layer.” In addition, there are the crop cultivation advantages of the method. “With no-till, we definitely have more water in the soil. The mulch layer simply massively reduces evaporation,” says Stapelbroek. According to his observations, the crops therefore last a few days longer than conventionally sown crops during prolonged drought.
More earthworms, better soil structure
The first changes in soil structure can also be seen after just two years of cultivation. Stapelbroek: “We have many more earthworms on our fields than before the introduction of no-till.” He also observes that the soil is developing better and better fermentation due to the excretions of the microorganisms in the topsoil. “You get on the land much earlier, the soil bears better and doesn’t stick,” says Stapelbroek.
Word of the many positive developments has now spread to neighboring farms, and interest in no-till is high. Stapelbroek is receiving more and more inquiries for Novag. This year alone, he has already sown over 200 hectares on a contract basis. He sees this as confirmation of his concept: “In my opinion, there’s no getting around no-till in dry regions like ours. It is the only sensible, sustainable way here.”
Cost-covering, even in dry years
He expressly includes the efficiency of the Novag. At driving speeds of eight to ten kilometers per hour, it achieves an area output of up to four hectares per hour. In addition, the costs and work involved in plowing and cultivating to prepare the seedbed are eliminated. “With the plow, it would not even be possible to cover costs in very dry years,” says Stapelbroek.
So far, he has already achieved the same yields with no-till as with the previous conventional method – but with significantly less effort. However, he assumes that even higher yields can be achieved with increasing humus content and increasingly better soil fertility.
The experimental farmer is already brooding over further ideas on how to combine crop rotation, catch crops, undersown crops and underfoot fertilization even better. “With the Novag, I have exactly the right machine for experimenting,” says Stapelbroek and laughs.
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