The Massey Ferguson Ideal header has had its first run in an Australian summer crop, harvesting a paddock of irrigated sorghum near Eugowra, NSW.
JGW Harvest and Tillage Support Managing Director and Dealer Principal, Jeremy Whitty, said one of the five demonstration models in Australia was brought to Cowra, following interest from local farmers.
“The client wanted to trial it in some irrigated sorghum as they currently run two Massey combines,” he said.
“They were very happy with it, the sample was brilliant compared to the older Massey! While the older Massey was doing a good job, the Ideal’s sample was cleaner, and the losses were a little bit higher in the older machines, while losses from the Ideal were minimal, maybe nil.”
Mr Whitty said while the Ideal’s next generation automated precision adjustment technology hadn’t been calibrated for sorghum, the sensors were live, and it allowed them to monitor the grain flow and manually adjust the settings to the conditions.
“We could see where the grain was being distributed, and where it was hanging on, initially we had a little bit of rotor loss which isn’t unusual with sorghum as it is such a high yielding crop,” he said.
“The key is to thrash it out and separate it quick, rather than carrying to the back of the rotor and we could see that with the technology.”
Mr Whitty said he believed the Ideal header would be a good fit for farmers and contractors harvesting summer and winter crops.
“Going from a single rotor to a twin rotor concept is new to Massey Ferguson,” he said.
“The set up has a lot of versatility, making it suitable to the range of crops grown in Australia, including legumes and varieties that have been harder to thresh without damaging the grain.”
Mr Whitty said it was great to see the first model tested in local conditions.
“Its very early days, these are the first factory-built machines and there will be a few tweaks based on how these performed,” he said.
“I was very impressed with how easily it was set up and its reliability, while it is a little more complex when you lift the side panels compared to what we’ve got, but the reliability was there.”
Article courtesy of The Land.