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 Twin Rotor®
combines replace conventional units
Saskatchewan
family harvests 300 + acres a day
George Bergstrom, a cash grain grower in Stockholm,
Saskatchewan, says the 2003 harvest was the kind of harvest you
like to have, and don't often get. August was sunny, hot and dry
in the big, picturesque Qu'Appelle Valley east of Regina. It was a
good crop, and it ripened fast.
The Bergstroms: George; his
wife, Lil;
and sons Tim and Erik.
George recalls his first harvest experience 35 years ago with
his father. They only had 320 acres to take off with a small
self-propelled combine. That harvest took about three weeks.
In 2003, George and his sons, Tim and Erik, were harvesting
with two New Holland CR960 Twin Rotor® combines. As the 2003
harvest progressed, they were taking off at least 300 to 400 acres
every day.
"The creature comforts on these new combines
are just awesome!"
—Chris Ryan
The family had seeded 6,000 acres last spring with spring wheat,
barley, canola and flax. George has known harvests to drag on into late
fall, frosty mornings and even early snow if the crop had been delayed a
little, or if the weather had turned wet.
Harvest capacity of the conventional combines they had replaced, a
1997 and 1998 model, had been enough when the machines were new, George
says. But since then, the farm had grown 20 percent and the older
machines have accumulated a lot of harvest hours.
"We were handling the larger farm size before, but we were
always dealing with weather," he recalled. "You had to be
pushing all the time. The last few years, mostly because of weather,
we've been harvesting right through to the third week of October."
Last year, with the new CR960 models, they were done by
mid-September.
Switch to rotary
Capacity wasn't the only reason for the switch to new rotary
combines. George had weighed the decision carefully over the past few
years.
Rotary combines compared to conventional combines, "do a nicer
job of threshing," George says. He had lived with 2-3% dockage in
spring wheat for a long time. He'd lived with peeled and cracked kernels
of barley long enough. Samples from his CR960 rotary combines were
"right on target" with his expectations.
"Our spring wheat sample went down to below 1% dockage. Our
barley sample was quite a bit better, too," he says. "We grow
quite a bit of malt barley, and the sample is crucial. They don't like
peeled or cracked kernels."
No cracks
Erik and Tim were the lead operators on the combines. Erik says,
referring to the rotary-threshed 2003 barley, "Zippo for cracks!
There were a few whitecaps due to the dry harvesting conditions, but not
many."
Before harvest, they had watched and worried a little, George
admitted. For southern Saskatchewan, July and early August had intense
heat and relentless sun. It was great grasshopper weather, and the
fields were buzzing ‚ but no one was sure what was happening in the
heads of grain as they quickly turned color.
"Temperatures were over 30°C (85° F) for three
weeks," George says.
 The outcome would have been different a dozen years earlier,
before they switched to no-till production. In 2003, the
one-pass, low disturbance system saved enough moisture to save
their crops.
"I'm completely sold on zero tillage," George says.
"We had seeded at our normal time in May. It was fairly wet
when we were seeding, and I think that's what made our crop. It
had a real good start, then we had a little rain, just to top it
off."
The Bergstroms say their New
Holland CR960 rotary combine does a better job threshing
and gives them a cleaner sample than conventional
combines.
Early start to harvest
The Bergstroms started harvesting during the second week of August
2003, about two weeks earlier than normal. The team included George, his
wife, Lil, both sons and a hired hand. They'd begin harvesting about 10
a.m. and shut down around midnight.
Some of the crop had to be swathed quickly. With steady days of high
heat, little moisture and full sun, the golden fields ripened fast.
"The creature comforts on these new combines are just
awesome," George says. "The climate control in the cab is
pretty nice.
We were moving right along, anywhere from 5 to 8 mph, but they roll
nice. They have big rubber and handle it quite well."
For four weeks of perfect, hot weather, there was barely any
interruption or slowdown. In wheat, the 300-bushel hoppers filled and
emptied three to four times every hour, 10 to 12 hours a day.
When it was time to switch headers, it was easy. Erik noted,
"Switching headers was quick ‚ about five minutes from a pick-up
to straight cut."
When it would have been time to grease the old combines after ten
hours, they didn't bother because the service interval on the new CR
combines is 50 hours.
"The serviceability of the CR is very minimal," Erik
commented. "You can go three days without stopping other than for
fuel."
As the harvest rolled along, they became very comfortable inside the
110-cubic-foot Harvest Suite™ cabs.
Erik and Tim found the controls were all at their fingertips. They
could customize information on the monitors and position the monitors
where they wanted. Visibility was better than ever, and unloading
on-the-go was faster, easier and safer with the new horizontal unloading
auger that swivels 270-degrees.
George estimated they were harvesting 15- 20% more acres per hour.
Threshing was never a problem this year.
The harvest team straight cut the spring wheat, taking off up to 50
bushels per acre of top grade product.
Other crops were first cut and laid in 30-foot swaths. This time, the
barley qualified as malt. It weighed in at 50-pounds and yielded 70-
80-bushels per acre. Flax averaged 25 bushels per acre. Some canola was
damaged by weather, but the rest yielded about 30 bushels an acre.
When it all over, George relaxed. "It was pretty much the
earliest harvest we've had," he says. The new rotary combines had
played a big role that went beyond low dockage and high quality
threshing.
"We got the harvest done a little quicker with the new
combines," he says. "It helped. Harvest is never done too
soon."
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