Trelleborg Showcases Commitment to Chinese Agricultural Industry

Andrea Manenti, Country Manager for China at Trelleborg Agricultural and Forestry Tires, commented: “It’s vital for us to support sustainable farms, protect soil and to reduce fuel consumption. Trelleborg offers high performance radial tire solutions in order to meet the stringent demands of the modern farm. 

“It’s an honour for us to showcase to the wider industry how innovative tires can protect the soil, reduce fuel consumption and increase yield crops. We hold a long-standing commitment to the development of the Chinese market and continue to support our customers with our local team and production facility in Xingtai.”
As part of its Field Day, Trelleborg hosted multiple field demonstrations highlighting the impact of speed and fuel consumption, footprint comparison, pulling and soil compaction. 

Its speed and fuel consumption test, comprised two John Deere 7830 tractors each with 3.5-meter width chisel, as well as the same transmission shift and RPM. However, one tractor was fitted with Trelleborg radial tires TM600 420/90R30 and 480/80R46, while the other with X-ply tires 16.9-30 and 18.4-46. Over a track of 200 metres which contained soft and dry soil prepared for planting, the tractor with Trelleborg radial tires saved eight seconds and 0.12 litres of fuel, equating to a 10.5% fuel saving. 

Therefore, if a tractor was to work for 2,000 Hectares per year, this would result in a saving of 63.5 hours and 16,354 RMB saving on fuel. This means that a farm with 100 tractors could save a remarkable 6,350 hours and 1,635,400 RMB per annum. 
Trelleborg also carried out a footprint demonstration, using the same tractors. A load of 3,200kg was placed on a single tire on the tractor’s rear axle. Trelleborg’s TM600 480/80R46 tire pressure was 1.4 Bar and its footprint was 5,356 cm2, while the X-ply tire 18.4-46 pressure was 2.1 Bar and its footprint was 3,071 cm2. The result was that the footprint of the Radial tire increased by as much as 74%, resulting in less soil compaction, higher yield, more traction and increased efficiency. Professor Liu Liyi from Northeast Agricultural University collected soil compaction data which revealed that soil compaction is considerably higher with X-ply tires.
As for the pulling demonstration, a John Deere 9520 tractor was pulled by two John Deere 7830 tractors connected with a steel rope on a pulley with the same transmission shift and RPM. One tractor was fitted with TM600 420/90R30 (tire pressure is 1.2 Bar) and 480/80R46 (tire pressure is 1.4 Bar). The other was fitted withTM800 540/65R30 (tire pressure 0.8 Bar) and 650/65R42 (tire pressure 0.8 Bar). The second tractor completed a 200 metres track up to seven meters ahead of the other. This was because wider tires have a larger contact area which more efficiently transfers the power of the tractor to the ground, providing superior traction. 

Following the field demonstrations, Trelleborg then held its ‘Soil Protection & Sustainable Development Forum’. This saw Andrea Manenti discuss sustainable development in Europe and the need for the agricultural industry to produce more, with less.
Dr. Qiuju Wang from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Heilongjiang, also took to the stage to discuss soil conditions and protection. This highlighted the importance of educating farming professionals to better understand the condition of their soil and the need to protect it. 

Mr. Shuqi Shang, Dean of Qingdao Agricultural University, Chairman of International Association on Mechanization of Field Experiments (IAMFE), also discussed the impact of agricultural machinery on soil and improvement. This revealed that soil compaction can cause a 3.8% - 13.4% reduction of soya bean, a 9.5% - 16.2% reduction of corn / maize and 4.0% - 20.0% reduction of wheat.