Harvesting In South Australia

[Tex3406]

We had a Massey 587 SP with a comb front, then a John Deere 1051 PTO with comb front. I know what you mean about having to open out the teeth spacing to avoid chokes. We have had to open them up to about 15mm at times.

Now we have a John Deere 7720 with open front, and in light crops it just doesn't feed in as good as the old comb fronts. They are alright when the crop is thick, and there is plenty coming in, but the last few years most of the crops have been poor.

 

[RocksnRoses]

Now we have a John Deere 7720 with open front, and in light crops it just doesn't feed in as good as the old comb fronts. They are alright when the crop is thick, and there is plenty coming in, but the last few years most of the crops have been poor.

That seems to be a common problem with open fronts and light crops. I don't know much about these, but there is the Vibramat that can be fitted to open fronts where the heads fall on to a vibrating mat, which supposedly stops them falling on to the ground. There is also a blower attachment with air tubes mounted along the front and the air flow pushes the heads back from the cutter bar. We don't see those attachments here, because there is usually enough straw to feed in and most of the barley crops are windrowed, anyway.
Some of the larger farmers here have draper fronts on their headers and I think they will handle just about anything.

Rn'R.

 

[Tex3406]

Yes, we have had a vibramat fitted for a few years now, and it does help a bit. It is a mat made out of tarpoulin type material, and is fixed to the back of the knife and lays backwards, so shakes side to side with the cutting action. It helps carry the heads back to the spiral when there is not large bulk coming in.

We also have a "Harvestaire" air blower that is fitted across the front instead of the reel, and this helps a bit with light crops, but gives us a lot of trouble by blowing chaff and straw around which builds up on the machine, and also blocks the radiator. We have a normal bat reel that we put on instead if we do get average or good crops.

There are a few draper fronts on newer headers in the area but I haven't had anything to do with them.

 

[RocksnRoses]

It sounds like you have tried most things, Tom, the only thing left is more rain so you can grow more straw. Maybe this year. There is a couple of Shelbourne stripper fronts for sale in the Farms & Machinery trader magazine this month. They are not cheap, there is a 1996 one for $23,595 and a brand new 24' reduced to $59,400 from $70,415. I don't see why they wouldn't work in light crops.

Rn'R.