THE UK’s leading manufacturer of trenchers for use in agriculture will be highlighting the benefits of land forming at this year’s Cereals event (June 8-9, Duxford, Cambridgeshire).
Mastenbroek, which has been pioneering the importance of drainage in crop production since 1977, will turn its attention to the relatively new concept of land forming and land levelling as part of the National Association of Agricultural Contractors’ Land Drainage Hub.
Land forming is commonplace in the United States and Europe but is yet to take off in the UK. Land forming essentially uses a GPS survey to identify uneven areas of a field. The survey data is used to scrape the soil from higher areas of the field into lower areas to produce an optimum surface. When combined with a drainage scheme, the land becomes more productive, generating better yields for farmers.
Christopher Pett, Commercial Director of Mastenbroek, and Fred Clarke, Technical Director, will be at Cereals to talk more about the concept. They will also use the example of AMS Contracting, which has recently won a significant land forming contract with G’s Fresh.
AMS Contracting in Chichester, West Sussex, is currently the only contractor in the UK using the Mastenbroek-supplied Trimble FieldLevel II system to generate cut and fill maps for farmland.
Established by Ashley and Myles Strange in 2011, AMS Contracting began life as a specialist big bale contractor but moved into agricultural drainage and land forming in 2017.
AMS Contracting will be working on 7.5 hectares of land to optimise salad production using a scraper equipped with the Trimble GPS system. Over three days, AMS will survey the field and form the field in line with its natural contours in such a way as to eliminate ponding.
n For more information about land forming and Mastenbroek, visit Christopher and Fred at Cereals or www.mastenbroek.com
n To find out more about AMS Contracting, look at www.amscontracting.co.uk
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