MIDVALE manufacturer Primary Sales Australia has been appointed exclusive distributor of the Bushel Plus harvest loss management system.
And according to company CEO Peter Broley, demand already has been triggered by WA harvest research last year.
"The Bushel Plus was thoroughly tested during last year's harvest in a research program conducted by Peter Newman for GRDC Western Region, and with Marcel Kringe, founder of Bushel Plus, when he was in Australia working with growers," Mr Broley said.
"Many growers were surprised with what they were actually losing once they'd measured the grain loss and it was common to see between five and 10 per cent loss in cereals.
"In one particular case, a grower discovered he potentially was losing $194,000 out of his barley crop until he used the Bushel Plus to identify his losses.
Having done this he made the necessary changes in the set-up of his headers and then re-calibrated his loss sensors using the Bushel Plus to bring his losses down to $40,000."
Mr Newman, Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) communications consultant and Planfarm advisor, was impressed with the Bushel Plus system.
He tweeted during harvest: "This thing is gold. It is the difference between harvest loss measurements being taken or not."
He later said: "If you don't measure it (grain loss), you can't manage it."
Mr Broley said the Bushel Plus system was a tool to more effectively manage harvest loss "throughout the harvest".
"Harvest conditions always change and that's where the Bushel Plus comes into play with the easy, fast and safe ability to accurately monitor harvest loss in less than 10 minutes," he said.
"And there's a specially-designed unit to fit our Emar Chaff deck, giving growers weed control and harvest loss measurement and calibration."
Mr Broley said the Bushel Plus was an integrated system comprising a magnetic patented cover, a drop pan, variable speed air separator and an app which calculated the harvest loss on your phone to enable operators to make decisions to adjust their header.
The magnetic cover is attached to the rear axle of the header with the drop pan attached electro-magnetically underneath.
All the operator has to do is activate a remote to drop the pan underneath the header to catch material and grain.
Then it is simply a matter of pouring the contents into the separator, taking out the straw, weighing the grain and using the app to calculate losses - a process which takes less than 10 minutes.
The app has built-in calculations to make it easy to determine harvest losses as a percentage and into kilograms per hectare.
Once the grower makes changes to the header to reduce the losses, they re-measure with the Bushel Plus, then re-calibrate their loss sensors on their header to match the harvest loss percentage they are targeting.
It's a practice which can be done as many times as desired, particularly in changing harvest conditions.
"It will also work if you have a vertical weed seed destructor attached to your header," Mr Broley said.
"It is a tool which enables growers pro-active decision-making over harvest losses, enabling them to determine acceptable losses weighed against the speed of the operation and general logistics associated with the harvest operation.
"By reducing harvest losses from 8pc to 3pc in a 1000ha barley program could mean an extra $35,000 in profit."
The Bushel Plus retails for $3450 plus GST and delivery.
More information: Primary Sales Australia on 9462 1910.
