The JCB Fastrack has been modified to 3m wheel track spacings and is operating a farmer designed 24m boomspray. The farmer is Nigel Moffat, Geraldton, WA. Photo: Guy Isbister, Agmech.
This JCB Fastrack has rear axle extensions. Photo: Guy Isbister, Agmech.
He partially adopted CTF initially, by extending the wheels of his John Deere 9760 headers, but with the short-term aim of converting entirely. Headers are often the first to be modified because they are the heaviest machines used on cropping paddocks and cause the most compaction. Ruwoldt said his farm management consultant had come on board with the concept and 80% of his clients were CTF adherents, “although none of them are over 40 years old”. He said farm machinery dealers were “useless” at promoting or even being knowledgeable about CTF. “I have explained to dealers when I have bought equipment why I wanted the wheel widths changed. “But then when I have traded in that equipment some years later, they have taken the wheel widths back to the original spacing, even though the new buyer was going to engage in CTF,” he said. The GRDC in a recent CTF fact sheet, said there was an urgent need for improved seeding and harvesting efficiencies for equipment wider than 12m. There was also an issue with poor spreading of straw and lime beyond
9m and a difficulty in moving burned windrows. Ruwoldt said he started CTF at 18m but has moved back to half that over time. He said that width was significantly dictated by yield, because in a 6T/ha wheat crop with paddocks up to 1.5km long, the grain tank on the header would fill well before reaching the end of the tramline. Research by the Western Australia Department of Agriculture and Food has found that a farm greater than 2000ha moving to CTF in 2012, was estimated to benefit by $36/ha if autosteer was already used and $45/ha if it was yet to be adopted, based on conservative conversion costs. “A 5% increase in grain yield and grain quality, and decreased fuel use, accounted for the first $36, while a 10% reduction in inputs would also occur, due to less overlap if autosteer was used,” the report said. The report added that if someone growing 2800ha of wheat a year invested $200,000 at an interest rate of 8.5% to convert their equipment for CTF, the yield benefit on average would be 15% and the investment could be paid off in about one year, based only on yield improvements.
The header auger has been extended to unload into a chaser bin operating from adjacent wheel tracks in a 9m system with a 3m wheel track. Photo: Department of Agriculture and Food WA.
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AUSTRALASIAN FARMERS’ & DEALERS’ JOURNAL - NOVEMBER 2013