inform - Grimme UK

Profitable
Trailed or Self Propelled?
harvesting relies on lifting potatoes at
the right time and with a minimum amount of damage.
These two growers believe there are real benefits to self
propelled harvesters but not in all circumstances.
Cost justify the decision.
While self propelled harvesters can carry a hefty price tag, like all
new investment if it can be realistically cost justified then it’s
probably worth considering.
Andrew Miller, based at Kellie Castle, near Anstruther in Fife
grows over 500 acres of potatoes including 200 acres of salads.
Harvesting can be a protracted operation.
“We reckon to begin lifting at the start of July and keep going
until October,” he says. “And as any grower worth his salt will tell
you, harvesting potatoes is all about taking care not to bruise
them – because nobody wants bruised potatoes.”
Four years ago Mr Miller (pictured
left) invested in his first selfpropelled
harvester – a Grimme SF
1700, which was specified with a
track drive – and, earlier this year, a
second machine arrived – an SF
150-60.
“So why run two self-propelled
harvesters? First because basically
we grow two crop types – salads
and main crop with a smattering of
other varieties to spread the work
load,” he explains. “These include
the varieties Charlotte and Nicola
with Maris Piper and King Edward.”
The 1700 is set with lifting and separation gear to cope with the
more mature main crops - similar to the company’s GZ harvester -
complete with a Multi-Sep unit plus a picking table and cart
elevator.
For the salads however, the SF 150-60 has been specified with
smaller webs – the first main web delivers onto the de-viner web
which takes the long pieces of haulm out of the back of the
harvester and allows the potatoes to fall through onto the second
main web where hedgehog-type separators, with their powered
rollers complete the cleaning before the potatoes are transferred
to a bunker.
Control is the next reason, “It is a lot easier to harvest a crop
properly without damage. Sitting on board the machine enables
you to see and tweak settings and speeds to cater for different
harvesting conditions.”
He points out that the machine’s bank of cameras keeps him
informed of how all the harvester’s components are performing
and adds that on a trailed machine it is not always possible see
how the crop reacts to changes to the settings.
So, there are advantages for quality but how do the operating
costs stack up?
“As we are harvesting for about four months of the year, the
argument that a tractor and trailed harvester enables a tractor to
be used for other jobs doesn’t really hold water,” he explains. “The
tractor is always in use on the harvester.”
“There are also occasions when the pack house requires just a
couple of loads harvesting. It‘s easy & cost effective to send out
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just one man with a tractor and trailer and the self-propelled
harvester to complete the order. A trailed harvester gang would
need probably four times this amount of labour.”
For Mr Miller’s enterprise, the overall operating cost of self
propelled is similar to trailed harvesters, but the main cost
advantage is in being able to lift potatoes in a much more
controlled way with fewer damaged tubers – and significant
savings in labour.
“Horses for Courses”, says Philip Benzie
Philip Benzie grows and contract harvests more than 1000 acres
of salad and main crop potatoes around Aberdeenshire. His fleet
of potato harvesters comprises three trailed Grimme GZs and, for
the first time this year, a self-propelled, two-row Grimme SF 150-
60, which has had its intake web widened to cope with a 72in bed
quad system.
“We need this number of machines to cope with our contracting
obligations,” he explains. “I am not so much concerned about
output as being able to harvest potatoes without damaging them
– that is the important part.”
His decision to purchase a self-propelled potato harvester was
based on the work it would be doing lifting his salad crop, yet he
maintains he would not have purchased it if he was growing, for
example, all main crop.
The machine has a de-viner web and a hedgehog-type cleaning
system, which is designed to be gentler on the potatoes and will
hopefully keep the small salad potatoes in the machine. This is
unlike the conventional machines fitted with haulm separators,
which could pull the small potatoes out with the haulm.
Like Mr Miller, Mr Benzie is convinced that having the operator so
close to the machine and able to tweak adjustments so accurately
results in another 0.25t/acre to be lifted, when compared with his
trailed machines – an extra 25t for every 100 acres harvested.
“Not only is this good news for me as a grower but also for the
owners of the land we grow the crop on,” he says. “When they
plant their next crop of cereals or what ever, they do not want to
be troubled with an excessive number of keepers in the ground.”
Mr Benzie also feels the self-propelled harvester scores over
trailed machines when he is asked by the packer to lift between
one and four lorry loads of salad potatoes per day. “We use a
cushion box loading system in the field so it’s just a matter of
sending up a couple of chaps and harvesting the required
amount,” he explains. “It’s a real saving on labour costs.”
The actual harvesting rate of the self-propelled when compared
with the trailed machines is about the same, but as Mr Benzie
observes, “The important part is lifting potatoes carefully – not
just getting them out of the ground. The job’s not done until the
potatoes are in the store.”
Just how the operating costs compare between the self-propelled
and the trailed machines is difficult to say just yet. “I feel there are
savings – certainly in the labour required – but I think it is too
early to be too specific. I’ll know more after we’ve completed the
first year.”