HANDLING GRAIN IN BULK

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28524, 1 March 1958, Page 9

HANDLING GRAIN IN BULK

Thirty Years 9 Experience On Dariield Farm

DULK handling of grain is still comparatively novel on New Zealand farms, but it is a procedure in which interest may be revived if more wheat is grown as a result of the increase in the wheat price and a possible decline in the profit from other farm products.

“As wheat-growing comes back I am sure that bulk handling will be used by’the larger growers,” said the veteran farming administrator and wheatgrower, Sir. Walter Mulholland, of Ladybank, Bars field, the other day. If this is indeed so then tne wealth of experience that Sir Walter Mulholland and a few others have accumulated in handling grain in bulk will be an asset to the country. For almost 30 years now all grain has been handled in bulk on the Mulholland property.

It was in 1930 that Sir Walter , Mulholland imported one of the first American header harvesters to come to this country. This veteran machine, which - served faithfully for 22 harvests, now rests peacefully in retirement under some trees in the farmyard at Ladybank. Mounted on now out-moded iron wheels it has given way to the self-propelled combine. The old machine was different from many of the headers that came to this country after it, in that it mounted a tank; since then wheat and oats have been carted from the harvest field in bulk on Sir Walter Mulholland’s farm. Why had he gone in for bulk handling so long ago? he was asked the other day. Sir Walter replied that bulk handling meant a saving in labour. “We were getting our grain stacked in the shed for the same amount of labour as others were using to harvest it in the paddock.” And, he added; “I have always liked to have my grain in the shed at night”—no worries about bags in the paddock for weeks in a wet season with the grain sprouting and the sacks rotting. Early Handling When the old Caterpillar header was first used the wheat was carted into the farmyard from the field in a motor truck and there it was bagged from a hopper mounted on the tray of the truck. Later . a larger wooden hopper was built It was set up in the yard and wheat carted in by motor truck was tipped into it The hopper had a mechanical elevator built into it so that the grain could be elevated for bagging. Both these old hoppers have now joined the original header beneath the farmyard trees. Direct To The Mill Since the 1951-52 harvest season wheat has been going in bulk from the field to the rail at Darfield and thence direct to the flour mill. Oats are, however, still being stored on the farm in bulk before being dispatched to store. A wooden partition in one of the farm sheds, which has a concrete floor, provides an enclosure where 1000 bushels may be stored, and by boarding up and lining with sacks a lean-to on the same shed it has been possible to hold another 4000 bushels poured into the compartment by removing a few - sheets of corrugated iron from the roof. In the farmyard, there is also a corrugated iron silo capable of holding 2000 bushels. The oats are elevated into these storage chambers after being tipped from the farm truck, which has a tray with sides 27 inches high for handling bulk grain, by a bulk loader which handles wheat at the rate of about 1500 bushels an hour and oats at 1200 to 1300 bushels an hour. The loader also works in reverse to suck ttye oats out again, when it is time to load them out again. A 12ft-long single-piece auger attached to the loader will effectively clear the floor of the storage space as it is moved across the surface. Down To Fine Art Bulk handling of wheat has been reduced to a fine art-by the Mulholland family. The harvesting is done by Sir Walter Mulholland’s two sons, Arthur and ' Doug. They take it day about driving the header harvester and the truck which takes the bulk wheat to rail. The Mulholland header, now in its fifth year of use, has been described as the battleship of the harvest field. It stands about 13ft 4in high and weighs four tons when empty and about tons more when its tank, which holds 45 to 50 bushels of wheat, is full. A bagging platform has been added to the machine so that it can be used for handling small seeds, which are, naturally, not harvested in bulk. In its first season this header harvested 515 acres of crops of types. The wheat crop on Ladybank varies from 130 acres to 200

acres a year and averages about 150 to 160 acres. A straw chop-| per fitted to the* back of the header operates like a hammer mill, breaking up the straw so that subsequent working of a paddock is greatly facilitated and the straw can be ploughed in.

In wheat and oats the brothers are able to do all the harvesting themselves. On the self-propelled header there is the driver alone. The header tank fills, on an average, every 15 minutes; but in a heavy crop it may take only nine minutes. The first tank full is filled into a hopper mounted on a trailer drawn by a tractor. It stands stationary in the harvest field. This hopper out, of the tank from the old * Caterpillar header and it has its own gear for elevating the grain into the motor lorry. The motor lorry driven by the other brother formally returns from Darfleld railway station in time to pull alongside the header, as it trundles around the paddock, before the tank is again full. The truck driver positions the tray of his vehicle beneath the boom-like unloading auger that swings out from the the header, and with both machines moving on around the field the grain is transferred to the truck. The unloading of the 50 bushels takes less than one minute. The motor lorry then returns to the stationary hopper to take on the load that the header deposited there while the truck was at the railhead, and then it returns to the header to clear another tank full before returning to rail with 140 bushels or so of wheat. At Railhead Travellers through Darfleld last month may have seen in the railway yards two bright green machines, not unlike military guns or rocket launchers with their barrels pointing skywards. They have, however, a very much more mundane purpose. They are bulk loaders capable of lifting wheat into railway waggons at the rate of 1500 bushels an hour. A trapdoor in the rear of the truck is opened and a chute is inserted to guide the wheat into the hopper of the loader and the tray of the truck is then elevated to set the grain running. 1

The other day the Mulholland team were harvesting a 33-acre crop of Qross 7 in a paddock about a mile from Darfleld station. The truck, in no great haste, was able to make the run to the station, leave its load in the railway waggon and return to the harvest field in no more than about 20 minutes. Some 380 to 390 bushels of wheat are loaded into an LA waggon in bulk. Under perfect conditions, with a good handling crop, it would be possible to fill four LA waggons with 1600 bushels of wheat in a day, but such favourable conditions rarely cfccur. Bulk handling certainly looks a labour-saving technique on Ladybank. The header driver sits aloft his whirring steed, lord of all he surveys, and the truck driver has little manual labour to perform apart from starting the motors that drive the elevator on the stationary hopper and the bulk loader and’cover the railway waggons as they are filled.

As more farmers turn to bulk handling as wheat growing grows in popularity again that is, the large growers—Sir Walter Mulholland anticipates that there may not be enough room at railway sidings for all those who may wish to move grain by this method nor may the railways be able to provide the rolling stock at the very moment that it is required. At present, with only an odd farmer handling in bulk, the department has been most helpful in making waggons available. In the future, however, Sir Walter Mulholland forsees that farmers may have to provide a certain amount of bulk storage on the farm. This may raise the question of installing equipment to dry wheat, which may be expensive to operate. In the Can-

terbury climate, he said, it would probably be possible generally to “get away with it” without drying; but there were some compensations with drying in that wheat could be harvested when it had a much higher moisture content —up to 25 and 26 per cent, in England. Sir Walter Mulholland said he believed that wheat of up to 18 per cent, moisture content could be handled if only there were facilities for turning it over. There were, however, quite extensive areas in Southland and also in the North Island where wheat could be grown well; but in four out of five seasons it was not dry enough to allow the crop to be harvested. If there were drying facilities it would be quite possible to, grow wheat in these districts provided of course, that it did not cost too much. In Canterbury he would not want to dry from choice, but it might become a question of whether it was more profitable to take the risk or to install drying equipment.