The neighbourhood whisperer.

The “boom” of the machines disturbs the neighbours – many agricultural operations, which have meanwhile been converted into residential buildings of the suburbs, face this situation.

The same happened to Georg Haverland with his dairy farm in the Soest district of Ostönnen. Just taking care of the animals on the weekend led to displeasure among the neighbours. The solution was found with the fully electric and above all absolutely low-noise 1160 eHoftrac from Weidemann. “We were immediately excited when we heard about this type of drive from our dealer Mesche Landtechnik and wanted to test the machine directly”, says Georg Haverland. However, the farmer and his co-worker Schwager Cornelius Margh carefully considered the decision and wanted to be absolutely sure when buying their new helper. In a detailed test phase, both of them compared different makes of diesel engines with eHoftrac.

The performance of the electric machine had convinced Georg Haverland right from the start: “You can use it very well and work very precisely with it.” And Cornelius Margh added: “This machine in a suit is simply real fun!” The dairy farm comprises 40 cows with own breeding. This includes 60 ha of agricultural area with agriculture, maize and grassland to feed the animals. Previously, the work was done with a front loader. Hence, eHoftrac has a Euro quickcoupler at the front. The existing attachments could be used further and supplemented meaningfully. With two different buckets, one pallet fork, one fork and grab and one bale fork, the loader is extensively equipped and can cope up with the tasks at hand. The feed mixer is filled daily, large bales are handled weekly and the playpens of the young animals are mucked out monthly. In addition, the machine is also used for any transport work, e.g. of fodder, big packs or seeds. The eHofrac has a TÜV road circulation approval and thus can be used to drive to its own machine shelter or also for operations in the neighbourhood.

Runtime and loading times are suitable for the operation.

Since March 2016, the 1160 eHoftrac has been running its rounds on the job. Users hardly notice that an electrically driven machine must be handled somewhat differently: In one week the eHoftrac runs on the job for approx. 6 net working hours; thus, you can manage very long with one battery charge. The loader is charged overnight once or twice in a week. “When we muck out, we charge more frequently, since the machine has to do a lot more in this operation. However, actually everything has worked out really well ... and with diesel we would have to drive for refuelling”, says Cornelius Margh jokingly.

Even more efficient in the future.

On the stable building, the Haverland farm has a solar power system, which currently still runs with a remuneration without own consumption according to EEG (Renewable Energies Act). Thus, it is therefore planned that in the foreseeable future the eHoftrac® will be charged with electricity from its own solar power system. This of course makes the machine even more attractive from a business point of view.