In April 2024, we had an opportunity to harvest with another Tiger 6s in Chile. Werner Hofbauer and Markus Pratelli visited the IANSA sugar factory in Chillán, the new owners of the sugar beet harvester. Franco Weisser, Head of Machinery and New Technologies at the factory, accompanied them on their stay in Chile.
The sugar factory processes around 8,000 hectares of sugar beet. Around 2,000 hectares of it are cultivated by IANSA-Agro itself. With this amount of beet, the processing campaign lasts between 150 and 180 days. Once the sugar beet campaign is complete, they refine imported cane sugar, thus achieving maximum utilisation of factory capacities. IANSA supplies around 60 % of the sugar on the Chilean market.
Tiger 6S with rubber defoliator
On the heavy Chilean soils, worldwide top yields of up to 150 tonnes per hectare are achieved using irrigation. The poorly distributed rainfall, which often falls for the most part during the harvest season, makes sugar beet cultivation almost impossible without irrigation.
The local farmers sow the sugar beet with approx. 150,000 seed units per hectare, usually with a row distance of 50 cm. The beet seeds, pesticides and now also the harvesting machines are supplied to the farmers by the IANSA factory.
The new Tiger, equipped with the ROPA rubber defoliator, is operated by the contracting company Servimak. Servimak has been using the powerful machines from Bavaria for a long time and also has a ROPA Maus.
Two-phase approach
As the soil conditions in the Chillán region vary greatly, areas with extremely high stone content are quite common. Sugar beet cultivation is a real challenge here. Harvesting at these sites is currently a complex process based on a two-phase method.
The cultivation of chicory is another unique feature of Chile. A few Tigers have already been harvesting the valuable roots for several years.
The chicory root is rather smaller and thinner than the sugar beet, which is why these machines were customised by ROPA. The harvesters are equipped with different share bodies, have smaller distances between guide grids, strainer wheels and elevator belt and the automatic steering system is also adapted to the specific features of this plant with an external row sensor. These modified harvesters are operated by Beneo Orafit.
Chicory roots, which have been known as a remedy for thousands of years, are now used to produce prebiotics, especially inulin. Inulin promotes healthy digestion and improves bone health and immune defence.
For our colleagues Werner Hofbauer and Markus Pratelli, the visit to Chile was full of exciting impressions and interesting encounters.
The products of the world market leader in sugar beet technology are used around the globe and will also harvest many thousands of hectares of sugar beet and chicory in South America.