British machinery manufacturer Standen Engineering is reporting growth in bespoke harvester sales, as growers increasingly look to tailor their machinery to suit their requirements and are stating particular growth in Scotland.
Graham Knottenbelt, Assistant Farm Manager at Luffness Mains, Aberlady, East Lothian, operates their T2 which was a bespoke build to harvest potatoes and carrots, he said: “The T2 is lightweight, but strong and very easy to pull with good weight distribution. The touch screen is very user friendly and having the ability to fine tune hydraulic flow rates to the ram services was superb. We lifted 250-300 acres of potatoes and by the end of the carrot season will have lifted 100 acres of carrots, with little or no damage. The RoTo axle is very good for opening up with no damage to crops and makes road transport easy. Individual control of the clod roller is a superb idea which allowed some separation when lifting the carrots. It’s brilliant, I love it.”
The T2 has been engineered to create minimal damage to the crop, whilst maximising efficiencies and is available with separator options to cover many crops including; potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, red beet and celeriac. It is available with a windrow attachment option, which, when used in conjunction with the RoTo Axle, eliminates the need for a trailer when opening up fields, resulting in less crop damage from trailers running on rows.
