[nig71]

ok so here is the deal on capacity, rather than establish how many tonnes per hour a machine may do in given conditions which is highly subjective tell us by the history of the machines you have owned, how many acres or tonnes you expect to combine and what you replaced it with and if you increased tonnage for similar hours or have our expectations of our equipment changed.

my example: when i worked in western canada we were taking off 2400 acres with one 1680 but i did note that some operaters were saying they had a 1680 for 1000 acres. I don't know what my boss replaced it with

when i came home to western australia we had a new holland 8060 to take off 1500 acres or 1300 tonnes which took 250hours.
we replaced this one with a 2166 case and increased our acerage to 2700 taking off 2500 tonnes in about 150 hours.

this machine was replaced with a jd cts11 which did the job in 20 less hours but took all the stubble with it.

we replaced this machine with a 9750sts which gets combined 4500 acres and nearly that in tonnes in 200 hours or less.

obviously all these figures are subject to efficiency but i hope by comparing operations there may be a reflection of what we should expect the capability of a machine is by percentage so we could take that figure and apply it to our operation.

i am personally hoping in a couple of years to take over my dads operation which will take me from cropping 3300 acres to over 8-9000 acres. i want to compare 9750 to 9860/70 but all machines are considered. very interested in the success of changing 2 class 6/7 machines into 1 class 8 or nine and is it realistic.

 

[customfarmer82]

I would consider keeping the the 9750 and adding on another 9760 or 9770. 9000 acres is a lot for one combine, especially if you have a major breakdown.

 

[tractor8100]

I second customfarmer's motion.

The math is pretty simple on this one.

 

[txfarmer]

I'm not familiar with the crops you grow; but in your scenario, it does not seem to matter all that much...

I would not even conisder doing that many acres with one combine. Keep the 9750 and add a "class 8/9", or maybe even trade the 9750 in on two class 8/9.

9,000 acres is just too much acerage to efficiently harvest with one combine ~in a timely fashion~, in my opinion; so I will "third" what CustomFarmer82 said.

 

[ninety420]

Guys we gotta remember Nigel harvests in an area that shuts the headers off when it gets too dry. Man I would kill for that problem sometimes.

If you can do it one machine is way more efficient then running 2 or more. with the one machine the best operator that knows how too push the 'bine to capacity and knows when something is wrong runs the thing and all the half wits just do the trucking and stay out of the combine cab.

 

[tractor8100]

If you could put a 60 or 70 foot front on a 9120, you might get by with one machine, if you could drive fast enough to keep it full.

 

[tombstone]

Go back and read what Greg S said about W.A. We took of 10000 acres with a clapped out n6 gleaner for 4 years without too many hassels. Well none from the weather anyway. So I can,t see too many problems doing 9000 acres with the jd. In 5 harvests we got stopped by 1 thunderstorm ,never pocessed a moisture meter and probably delivered more grain to the wheat bin at bonnie rock and wilgoyne under10% than over. Certainly a lot easier than harvesting on the Canterbury Plains.

 

[blueleaf]

Nig,
Maybe go and have a cup of tea with your next door neighbour and discuss your combine solutions - you know the neighbour i am talking about - he has those big yellow ones with the BLUE stripe.
By the way your canola has leafed up nice on the cross road there, well done!!!!

 

[nig71]

blue leaf, i like the cr that my neighbour has but i have turned green since i have had my cat, i think the solution probably would be the class 9 CR (i have a friend in the wheatbelt taking off 16000 acres with one) but i would have to swallow going to new holland and my dad would have to swallow me trading in on a yellow one.

i do have a cts11 that i run myself for 3300 acres and the consideration is to have it as my breakdown machine and to take off the barley with; it does a pretty good job of that. but i would prefer to run just one machine due to labour complexity and trucking concerns, the 9750 still has a lot of value in it, it will bearly have 1100 rotor hours on it and it is a wednesday machine (only uses 45l/h of fuel). trade it on a class 8/9 with a forty foot front to fit into my controlled traffic system.

i feel i should not have mentioned my personal situation as i wanted to ge a feel for how harvesting has changed in the last 20 years as we have progressed from in my case a class 3 machine to class 9 and what sort of jumps in productivity have we achieved. this would help anyone anywhere get a grasp on what a new machine may bring to an operation as we have all had experiences with the old ones and wonder how the new ones compare.

ps my harvesting conditions are not true wheat belt of western australia but would be considered brilliant by comparison to a large proportion of north america/canada . we start canola which is half the program in late october and really have 2 to 3 weeks in mild conditions to cold at night before our barley is ready. my dads 9750 was doing over 250 acres a day in 1.8t crops 32bu for all confused. then barley at 25% of the program and wheat as the last 25% .i have only been finnished before christmas maybe 5/6 times in my life. this year we finnished the first week of january it was the worst i have seen for a number of years. my dad recalls harvesting nearly into march in the sixties. the longer the harvest goes the hotter it gets as a rule. some days get as high as 45 degrees C and we are banned from moving equipment on farm due to fire risk. we can't even load a truck we just go and swim in a dam or even go to the beach until we are allowed to harvest again.

 

[customfarmer82]

Big breakdowns happen, no matter who or what you do. 9000 acres is a lot of wheat, no matter how you look at it.