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Featuring heavy-duty construction, the bucket/grab is said to handle maize silage or baled materials such as the lucerne or rye straw easily.
Peter Scheres, alongside son in law Aaron Pascoe and his wife Kate, operates Twin Oaks, near Lichfield in the Waikato. The property of 115ha runs 420 cows, delivering around 270,000 kgMS per annum under a System 5 operation.
Production is driven by a TMR feeding regime, delivery the cows around 18.5kg DM/day with a ration made up of lucerne, maize silage, rye straw, soya bean meal, tapioca pellets, molasses and minerals.
Such a system requires reliable loading equipment, so when a tractor/ loader needed replacement, the business decided to settle on a dedicated compact wheel loader, in this case, a 51hp Kubota R540, that offered a very useable 1,510kg lift capacity.
Realising that reach over the side of their large mixer wagon would be marginal, the farm approached local manufacturer Kaimai Steel – makers of the well known Pearson brand – looking at the possibility of building a toe-tip bucket fitted with a top grab to deal with the farm’s wide range of feed inputs.
The resultant unit, now with several months of operation under its belt, has exceeded expectations, reports Aaron, “easily reaching and tipping over the side of the mixer wagon, while the grab ensures a clean face on the maize clamp and helps reduce secondary fermentation”.
He also notes that the bucket/grab takes a “bite” of around 1,200kg with each mouthful, useful when the maize silage makes up around half of each 12,000kg mix.
Interestingly, the loader/bucket combination has also reduced loading times over the previous tractor/loader set by around 45 minutes each load, resulting in 90 minutes being saved each day.
Featuring heavyduty construction, the bucket/grab is said to handle maize silage or baled materials such as the lucerne or rye straw easily, with the latter easily pulled apart by the grab before being deposited in the mixer wagon. Available in 2.1 or 2.4m widths, effectively offering 0.98 or 1.12 cubic metre capacities, the machine features key features like protected rams for the toe-tip mechanism, a heavy-duty grab, grease points on all pivot pins throughout and a choice of mounting brackets for loader, telehandler and wheeled loader set-ups.
Both Pete and Aaron praise the general construction of the bucket, but importantly praise the service provided by Pearson, who designed and manufactured the bucket quickly and allowed them to support a local manufacturer.
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With the biannual Italian EIMA machinery Expo less than a month away, Case IH has taken out a Technical Evolution award for the Advanced Vehicle Suspension system available on its Optum 360–440 series tractors.
The Advanced Vehicle Suspension system, available on Optum 360, 390, and 440 models, responds to changing conditions, automatically adjusting how the suspension reacts to absorbs shocks and controlling vehicle movement.
In operation, sensors monitor the vibrations transmitted from the tractor chassis to the operator cabin, allowing the system to adjust suspension damping in real time. The control system incorporates key priorities, such as comfort at lower speeds and stability as speed increases, while also reacting to factors such as lower tyre pressures, where the tyres absorb more of the initial shock.
Case IH said as suspension requirements change throughout the working day, as tractors move between the paddock and road transport, the system manages suspension response in the background as tasks, speeds and conditions change, leaving the operator without the need to make manual adjustments.
Richard Hollins, Optum series tractors global product manager, said: “Pioneering technology must earn its place in the working day. Farmers and contractors will judge an investment by what it delivers, including manageable ownership costs, dependable up-time and the versatility to tackle different jobs. With AVS, we are putting intelligent control to work for comfort and stability, without giving the operator another setting to manage.”
Organised by FederUnacoma, the Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation, the contest has been part of EIMA since 1986, with the Technical Evolution distinction awarded to products that introduce original improvements to solutions already manufactured or patented.
www.caseih.com
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