Field size, shape, crop, yield, tolerance to losses, stubble length, obstacles in the field.... I find it best to look at weekly or seasonal work rates achieved, not spot or daily.
Combine and tractor replacement policy
- Thread starter ace
- Start date
Field size, shape, crop, yield, tolerance to losses, stubble length, obstacles in the field.... I find it best to look at weekly or seasonal work rates achieved, not spot or daily.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
You need to be careful with Claas. They'll tell you their Combine can do far better than it really can.
When you ring up and complain that it won't do as many acres/tonnes an hour as they said it would, they'll look at the telematics of your machine and tell you that you stopped for lunch on such and such day, or unloaded while standing still rather than on the move, or that you weren't driving it fast enough and should have put up with more losses out the back!
Claas are really well known for saying their Combines will do far more than they are really capable of in real life.
They'll even switch it off and you can't restart it if you don't keep up with the payments!
- Location
- Bedfordshire
We used to do 1200 acres in about 130 drum hours of mainly OSR and Winter Wheat with a CR9080 30ft. That was in 37 fields, in a 6 mile triangle in 7 blocks, with over 20 header off moves. Hardly ever any liquid sunshine on the wheat. Probably 10 hours of the 130 would be running up empty over winter and waiting for trailers etc. I've run next to a straw walker Lexion and had a demo of a narrow 760, I would hope the 770 will be at least 20% more output that my old CR.
- Location
- Cirencester
The TX's were built well, a lot better than the CX I have where the paint is falling off it already and tin/steel seems to have been pared down the the min thickness they can get away with. But the paint is the big let down on it.
- Location
- Bedfordshire
I've always said this. Every combining hour ties up 3 or 4 labour units, and 2 or 3 tractors.
I'd say the opposite tbh, my CX is streets ahead of my TX, in every way
- Location
- Cirencester
Yes, it's a much better combine but the paint on mine just falls off, no primer used from what I have seen
Take my comment with a pinch of salt - I've never driven the machine - my observations are largely based on sitting in my office (in London) watching the progress of harvest over telematics. I may be too low on the hourly work rate (especially in large fields) but my comments on daily hectares are not far out. Some people claim to get vast throughput from these machines, but as already noted there are so many variables, especially yield (lets not go there...) and tolerance for losses. This past year we had some very short crops on uneven fields which made it slow going. If I could remember my telematics password I might be able to give you some solid numbers.
warksfarmer
Member
770tt with 35ft vario.
11 acres per hour average.
Average field size 15ha.
2 main blocks accounting for 3/4 of the area. 2 smaller blocks for the balance.
Blocking cropping is used generally.
Spot work rates which are irrelevant it will do 100t/hr. average work rate in wheat is more like 40t/hour delivered back to the shed so the combine if it doesn’t stop would be 50t/hour.
Attachments
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Bear in mind it could well be worth £11k in 5 years time.
2wheels
Member
- Location
- aberdeenshire
like tesla cars.
simonk88
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds
We are going to run a 8900 Claas cutting 1800ha a season over a range of crop types, changing from two Axial Flows to one combine. Got a good drier/handling system (5% @ 93t/hr) in place to cut an hour earlier and later to maximise days. Cuts out a labour unit, we would normally dry grain anyway, allows more time for autumn preparation work to be done.
Have you calculated your tolerance to grain losses? It's a marketing tool by Claas and worthy of consideration when trying to boost output. Too many farmers don't like seeing green lines in the field afterwards even though it could actually be a better investment than a bigger combine. "6 grains under the palm of your hand" under the swath might be appropriate for a 15 foot header but not for a 45 foot one!
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Why does the chaff spreader and straw chopper not spread the grains?
simonk88
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds
The Axial Flows would pour grain out the back when pushed, and we couldn't maximise the stripper header in terms of forward speed with them. The cost differential between one or two combines was enough to dry (for us) 90,000t of wheat over 5 years
You're talking about chopping. I was talking about swathing, and the nice green lines that grow where the swaths were. 1% loss would mean the grains were touching one another with a 35 foot header & many wouldn't think that was acceptable even though the value of the retained grain was far less than a bigger machine.
If you are limited by hp, there's a debate to be had about swathing the straw for quicker cutting progress, or leaving a longer stubble, a Dual Stream cutter bar or stripper header.
Chopping would
I'll defer to @Two Tone on combine output as he understands far more about it.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I understand the logic, but that much grain thrown over in rows becomes quite an issue for following crops, we have all seen OSR crops with nothing growing where the mass of barley thrown over swamped it out.
I would sooner have little spare capacity in case of bad weather/breakdown rather than plan to throw lots of grain on the floor and combine in the rain.
It's all down to personal preference & risk management.
I view Falcon as a cheap herbicide in osr to stop volunteers if I keep the malting premium on barley by pushing on ahead of an oncoming storm.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
What do you do in second wheats... or in DD situation?It's all down to personal preference & risk management.
I view Falcon as a cheap herbicide in osr to stop volunteers if I keep the malting premium on barley by pushing on ahead of an oncoming storm.
Bossfarmer
Member
- Location
- between Perth and Inverness
as @Clive likes to say with his fendt tractors the cost of them is irrelevant and so is cost to chance its depreciation that matters, moneys cheapDon't worry about it. Money's cheap. On another thread you said borrow as much as you can afford, inflation will actually make your loan make money for you. That will reduce the depreciation!