Harvesting help is here

Farmers could be losing money before their crops even leave the paddock due to inefficient settings on their combine harvesters, Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) technology manager Chris Smith says.
“In Western Australia, they extrapolated the data they were getting from combines, and they estimated there was around $AU 320 million being thrown out of the backs of combines of seed in 2021 and 2022 alone.”
To mitigate this, a team of Australian experts set up workshops to help farmers and contractors run their harvesters more efficiently.
Now, after a successful pilot programme last year, they are bringing that knowledge to Kiwi for Shores for the second time.
This season’s workshops will again be run by the same Australian team of experts, funded and facilitated by FAR.
The team will be led by Peter Broley of Primary Sales Australia, who has been holding workshops in collaboration with the Grains Research and Development Corporation across the Tasman.
“They now have a season’s worth of experience working in New Zealand conditions and crops,” Smith says.
The workshops will cater to combine harvesters of all brands used in the South Island – Case, CLAAS, New Holland and John Deere.
“The biggest thing that appealed to me is that they are brand agnostic because they don’t work for any of these companies; they can make suggestions the companies may not.”
There will be one John Deere-specific Mid Canterbury course on December 10 in Valletta, and all model workshops in South Canterbury on December 9, North Otago on December 10, and Darfield on December 11.
Smith says that adjustments made to combines following last season’s workshops led to some instant harvesting gains and cost savings including limiting crop losses, faster harvesting speeds, lower diesel consumption and better harvest samples.
“Getting the settings correct can make a dramatic increase in productivity and maintain harvest samples. One grower took 70 hours off his combining, and another reduced fuel consumption by 30 per cent as well as producing a clean sample.”
Last year’s workshops focused more on grain; this year, the focus will shift to seed quality.
”We will be looking at machine losses, and trying to get a cleaner sample.”
Smith hopes to facilitate online groups where growers can share information about combine settings and their effect on limiting crop losses.
“If we can get WhatsApp groups going, we can growers talking to each other about settings, they can help each other, and we can get a New Zealand set of figures because there is no set of figures for New Zealand crops.”
Smith emphasised that the workshops are not geared at “telling farmers how to combine” but at addressing the challenges growers face.
“The growers here are experts on growing crops; it’s about growers talking to growers as well.”
FAR is funding the workshops, making them free for attendees.
Those interested can find out more information and register at www.far.org.nz/event
By Claire Inkson