An economic and energetic evaluation of whole crop harvesting on cropping farms in Canterbury

Abstract

The combine harvester is the main item of harvesting machinery in arable cropping regions of the world. The combine was originally developed to harvest wheat grown on the prairies of the United States of Arrerica and Canada, and performance was acceptable in the dry harvesting conditions experienced there. When the machines began to be used in more maritime climates, considerable problems were experienced with poor threshing, unacceptable crop losses, severe grain damage, etc. the basic design of combines has not changed dramatically over the last fifty years or so (excepting recent helical threshing developments), and the same problems with combine performance are still beinq experienced by cropping farmers. Many alternative crop threshing, separating and cleaning mechanisms have been developed over the years, but few have had any great influence on the inadequacies of combine harvesters.