Equipment Focus: Daybreak of the self-propelled forage harvester

Slicing silage by a self-propelled harvester is now such a regular characteristic of the season that a lot of the drivers working alongside them could have been born properly after they appeared on the scene through the Nineteen Eighties and 90s.

Dragging a harvester alongside behind a tractor should appear as archaic because the scythe to many, though it’s a methodology that matches in with just a few farming enterprises and there’s nonetheless a small demand for the machines.

Horsepower issues

Going self-propelled makes numerous sense. Output is only depending on energy and even the most important tractors pale compared with harvesters growing properly over 1,000hp.

When coping with this type of vitality enter into the chopping mechanism, commonplace PTO shafts are simply lower than the duty.

It’s not simply the transmission of that energy but additionally the mounting of a heavy cylinder revolving at excessive speeds which requires a level of energy, rigidity and stability that may solely be supplied in a specialist machine.

It has taken round 50 years to get to the place we’re in the present day.

Equipment producers by no means stand nonetheless for worry of changing into extinct, and so numerous growth work had already gone into creating greater and higher trailed machines, however these had been restricted to regardless of the tractor might provide on the PTO.

There have been efforts made to beat the dearth of tractor energy with out going to the expense of a self-propelled unit by mounting an engine on the harvester to energy the chopper immediately, leaving the tractor to do the hauling.

This was definitely an enchancment, but it surely might end in a tractor, a heavy harvester and a full trailer of silage counting on only one set of brakes, not an excellent state of affairs on slopes, particularly if moist.

Mixing and matching

Self-propelled was the way in which to go and each New Holland and Claas went down the route of attaching a 100hp+ engine and drive axle to an present chopping mechanism and pick-up reel.

Claas entered the fray in 1972 with the Jaguar 60 SF which took the header and mechanism from the Jaguar 60 trailed mannequin and mounted it on a mix chassis, probably the Dominator 80 as this had the 120hp engine which featured within the new machine.

John Deere was extra bold with its 160hp 5200 and 212hp 5400 fashions introduced in 1972. These would have been excessive efficiency machines on the time and contractors on this facet of the pond might have felt that they didn’t have the tractors to maintain up with them.

New Holland introduced out its 1880 at roughly the identical time, which additionally mixed the weather of trailed chopper and mix drive axle, but each European corporations had been crushed to it by a Discipline Queen, an organization that had been making self-propelled forage harvesters since 1950.

Discipline Queen leads the way in which

Given this head begin, it’s of little shock that by the early Seventies this American firm was already providing a machine of 200hp, which was designed and manufactured along side Hesston.

The story of this growth work and the rise and fall of the corporate is warmly instructed by Tyler D. Corridor in his e-book Efficiency/Endurance, the story of Discipline Queen Included, which supplies an appreciative account of the marque’s manufacture in Kansas, main as much as its acquisition by Hesston.

Hesston got here to recognise that the Discipline Queen format had served its objective through the years and a clear sheet design was required.

The consequence was certainly a distinct machine altogether though a Discipline Queen engineer, Ron Guinn, did have an enter into its growth.

Launched in 1983, it was an articulated 4WD machine that had the carried over the thought of a set tank for the grass, as an possibility.

This was unloaded by a belt mechanism quite than tipping it out, which had all the time been a dangerous enterprise on something however snooker desk easy floor.

Generally known as the 7730 it was made in France, on the outdated Braud mix harvester manufacturing unit, and featured 350hp Cummins engine which saved it forward of the pack, for even the high quality Claas 690 launched in the identical 12 months solely supplied 300hp.

Maybe it was too far forward of its time, and though the grass field meant that it might work with out interruption whereas trailers had been modified alongside, a characteristic of mix harvesters, the mechanism was cumbersome and little question added weight and expense.

It was quickly changed by the extra standard 7725 and 7735 fashions. These machines adopted the now commonplace format of blowing the grass into trailers by way of a spout quite than utilizing the field and belt methodology, additionally they had the drive axle on the entrance with rear-wheel steer.

Catching up within the self-propelled market

This association has remained as probably the most logical structure for self propelled forage harvesters; they’ve merely gotten greater and extra refined with additions corresponding to 4WD changing into commonplace.

Krone adopted the identical format when it entered the market in 2020 as did Fendt in 2012 and now all the foremost companies have a stake out there together with the smaller issues.

The SPFH has come a great distance during the last half century with makes an attempt to imitate the power of mix harvesters to maintain reducing with out interruption being tried and deserted alongside the way in which.

Forage harvesters are thought of specialist machines in their very own proper, with groups of engineers devoted to bettering their output and effectivity, however it’s unlikely that we’ll see any radical new layouts within the close to future.