Handling The Harvest

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 7

Handling The Harvest

TTERE a vehicle belonging to the Ellesmere Transport Company, Ltd., is shown taking the final load of wheat out of a 20-ton plywood bin on the Clifton property of Messrs P. J. and H. C. Abbott at Southbridge this week. The Bin auger being used is one of three mobile augers that the company has for this sort of work.

The Abbotts have handled in bulk for the first time this season and are thoroughly satisfied with the ease of the method. They have used two 20-ton plywood silos to store their

grain. The silos have been mounted on a bluegum base —this timber has been available on the property—and they have been located in the harvest paddock or in an adjoining grass paddock if that was available. The two silos will hold about the output of a full day’s harvesting. The brothers regard the silos as a temporary means of storage while they are testing out the bulk handling system.

To take the grain from their dual-purpose header harvester they have used a

trailer made out of an old tip truck deck which has had the cab cut off. The wheat has been tipped onto a sheet, built into the form of a hopper with sacks, adjacent to the silo, and from here it has been augered into the silo with a 6in mobile auger. At one stage the header worked for four hours nonstop.

On the property of Mr P. Chamberlain at Southbridge a tidy concrete block shed has been built for handling bulk grain. It has two bays each capable of holding 25 or 26 tons of grain. The bays each have three sets of wooden doors one above the other and out of the grain season the idea is to use these bays for implement or other storage purposes.

On this property the bulk grain was fed into the store from a truck with 6in auger in its base and an Bin auger to elevate it into the shed. The wheat was being loaded out again this week into a transport company truck and trailer with the company's auger. This auger has a second motor and an attachment enables a metal blade, with handles so it can be guided manually, to be drawn backwards to the auger with the grain still left in the shed.