THE top grain trend at the recent CRT FarmFest field days near Toowoomba, Qld, centered on ways to minimise harvest downtime, courtesy of bumper-sized paddock-orientated equipment.
As the number of contractors continues to dwindle, large-scale broadacre producers must scale up their machinery inventory to ensure header performance is maximised.
It’s as much as anything being accelerated by the increasing capacity of the latest combine harvesters which are in jeopardy of having their performance reined in due to under-performing support equipment.
Already thinking on these lines is Victorian-based Dunstans Farmers Engineering which chose to unveil its monster-sized 110t capacity field bin at the Kingsthorpe event.
Company representative Dean Pinniger was on hand to talk about the 18-strong wheel assembly and its front-steering mechanism.
Able to unload at about 5t/minute, the bin has a hydraulically-operated roof mechanism that is controlled from the tractor driver’s seat.
“The big thing is to keep the harvester running,” Mr Pinniger said.
The bin itself weighs about 12t, translating to 120t all-up when 110t of grain is factored in.
Interestingly, the bin can be pulled half full, requiring a 187kW (250hp) plus tractor and comes with a 355mm (14in) discharge auger.
DFE also builds chaser bins ranging in capacity from 15t up to 36t.
Meanwhile Bullock Engineering’s Braden and Viv Bullock snared a lot of interest in their 30-tonne capacity chaser bin equipped load-sharing rubber tracks that claim to lower compaction levels by as much as 70 percent when compared with a conventional axle arrangement.
The non-powered units are fully hydraulically adjustable from 2.7m up to 4m and are fitted with air bags to help maintain track tension.
Other features include a horizontal auger under the hopper and a load-out speed of between 5t to 6t/minute. Also available, as an optional extra, is a remote controlled electrically-operated rollover tarp.
The machine comes from the US-based Landluvr company.
Meanwhile, following its paddock-debut at a field day earlier this year, visitors had the chance to see the eye-catching Oztec chaser bin complete with its extension platform.
Company spokesman Glen Picone developed the concept in response to producers that want to keep their chaser bins within the property’s tram track systems.
Up until now this has been difficult to achieve because header unloading augers do not quite meet a tractor and chaser bin combination running down a parallel set of tracks, thereby undermining a full tram track concept.
Also up from the southern states was Bunker Bag’s Tim Sait who was looking for dealers in Queensland for a range of grain-related products.
Interestingly, his truck side-loader is made in Australia and is described as “the missing link” in the fast-expanding bagging system.
The bunker bag truck side-loader can unload about 27t of wheat without having to move a truck due to the swinging action of its design.
Bagging machines from both Argentina, also Australia, are on offer from the company which says, increasingly, the concept is appealing to producers having difficulty accessing trucks, even the rail system, at harvest.
Mr Sait says new-generation bags offer a good short to medium-term storeage solution.
As well, a sturdy-looking range of OMBU chaser bins is available, including 10t, 12t and 14t models.
Email a friend