2019 Wimmera Field Days

A number of major brands debuted major new items in their range at this year’s Wimmera Machinery Field Days. Andrew Hobbs reports on some of the highlights

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The 57^th annual Wimmera Machinery Field Days kicked off the 2019 Field Days calendar in style as farmers came from across the country to Longerenong, near Horsham in Victoria.

Here are some of the standout debutants at this year’s event.

AGCO IDEAL 8 AXIAL COMBINE

The Ideal 8 was named Machine of the Year at the 2019 field days, with judges noting that the combine had been “built from the ground up” by AGCO as part of a clean sheet design.

Badged as a Massey Ferguson, the model on display has 538 engine horsepower (401kW) and a Dual Helix 4.84m threshing rotor, while models in the range boast a grain tank capacity of 12,500–17,100 litres and an unloading rate of 140–210 litres per second.

Surefire Agricultural’s Quickdraw chemical batching station

SUREFIRE AGRICULTURAL QUICKDRAW

Wimmera Machinery Field Day organisers awarded the Quickdraw automated chemical batching station the agribusiness innovation of the year – noting it had immediately attracted the interest of judges when it arrived.

Distributed locally by AJS Machinery, the Quickdraw calculates precisely the amounts of various chemicals in batches – including those that are manually added, and keeps a log of every batch loaded for later download in record keeping.

Up to six products can be metered at any one time, with the machine also taking into consideration the acreage to cover, the preferred litres per application rate and the total batch size.

In retro colours, there was nothing old about Case IH’s Axial-Flow 7150 combine

CASE IH AXIAL-FLOW SERIES

Case IH debuted not one but two combine harvesters at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days, with examples of its Axial-Flow 150 Series and 250 Series on display.

A special edition of the 150 Series’ 7150 was on display in Case IH’s classic colours – complete with white tyre rims – while the 250 Series was represented by an 8250.

Standard features on the 250 series include enclosed hydraulic powered disc brakes and new front axle and final drives, as well as new ground speed adaptive sensitivity settings, that adjust the active header height control sensitivity with speed.

It also comes with a range of options, including AFS Harvest Command automation, which uses 16 sensor inputs to continuously monitor the machine and adjusts seven different settings to maximise combine performance.

Also on display was Case IH’s relaunched 6130 Axial-Flow combine that was relaunched in 2018 for Australian producers.

Dunstan has launched a 60 tonne chaser bin in response to popular demand

DUNSTAN 60 TONNE CHASER BIN

Victorian manufacturers Dunstan released a new 60 tonne chaser bin which it built in response to customer demand.

Built with a triple-axle design with axle steering standard, the bin is controlled-traffic ready with a 7m lateral grain table.

The bin on display at Wimmera has hydraulic brakes and load cells that give the user accurate information about the current and total weight of grain handled. These are fully integrated with Agrimatics Harvest Software.

It also comes equipped with a high capacity 24″ (254mm) unloading auger to make unloading faster.

Reversible belts enable Coolamon’s SC 3523 to act as both a spreader and a chaser bin

COOLAMON SPREADER CHASER 3523

After years of manufacturing spreaders and chasers, NSW manufacturer Coolamon brought both technologies into one with the launch of its Spreader Chaser 3523.

Coolamon general manager Heath Hutcheon says it was a smooth development process to combine the two halves of the different machines into one – with the spinners identical to the ones it normally uses on spreaders.

“That is minimum 120l/m to operate the belt spinners, and from there as a chaser bin it is just [powered by] power take off on the delivery auger up to 1,000rpm,” he says.

The flexible front of the Claas Convio 1230 Flex Cutter Bar has proven popular

CLAAS CONVIO 1230 FLEX CUTTER BAR

The only Flex cutter bar for a Claas Lexion 760 harvester in Australia was on display at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days, although Farms & Farm Machinery was told the company has sold 10 to eager farmers around the country.

“Like a rigid front it works on an auto contour system – so it has two hydraulic rams on the feeder house – when it is flex mode it uses the cutter bar to make those auto contour hydraulics react so it is using the flex but also flexing the whole front at the same time,” a Claas spokesman says.

With an upward flex of 90mm and a downward flex of 135mm, the cutter bar also has a clip around reel and has an automatic belt speed driven off the forward speed on the header – meaning it moves as fast as the header is moving.

Hansa Precision Equipment’s T15 trailing spreader will be the biggest in its range

HANSA T15 SPREADER

Ballarat-based Hansa Precision Equipment launched its T15 trailing spreader at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days, with the new model to be the largest in its range.

Boasting a capacity of 14 cubic metres and able to take a payload of roughly 20m, the tandem-axle machine also comes with parabolic suspension, steering axle brakes, load cells and optional ISOBUS.