SOUTH Australian company Seed Terminator has installed its 200th unit in time for this year's harvest.
The milestone occurred on the Paskeville, South Australia farm of Duncan McKay, who had the unit fitted to his Case IH 9240 header.
For company founder and director Mark Ashendon, the event was the culmination of 10 years of "research and science" and four years of practical application throughout Australia.
According to Mr Ashendon, the Seed Terminator effectively kills weed seeds, including those that have escaped or resisted the various stages of herbicide spraying.
"After working closely with farmer research partners over a combined 281 harvests, the Seed Terminator technology is paddock-proven and farmer-focused," Mr Ashendon said.
"We've also evolved the mill technology over the past four years to drive down the cost of the wearing parts and to increasingly decrease the amount of power used in the process."
Mr McKay said the mechanically-driven Seed Terminator was the right tool for him to use in his weed management control program.
"The issue we have in most farming situations is we're always competing with weeds," he said.
"We're always trying to get on top of weeds and lower our costs.
"Previously we have been managing the ryegrass with oaten hay for export but having this machine on board, we can get rid of those weed seeds and keep chemical costs down, so it's a win-win.
"I'm really excited to see what it can do in the next couple of years."
Local dealers Larwoods Ag Services jumped on board with the technology with dealer principal Scott Mercer convinced the Seed Terminator was a huge benefit for farmers in the region.
"The Seed Terminator is Australian-designed and Australian-made for Australian farmers," Mr Mercer said.
Mr Ashendon said the opportunity has expanded for the Seed Terminator to be taken globally, with 10 units in Europe, four in Canada and three in the United States.
"Seed Terminator also conducts ongoing trials in a number of universities in Australia and overseas to test the ability to kill weeds," he said.
"The University of Adelaide testing found the Seed Terminator was able to kill 99 per cent of notoriously tough ryegrass seeds.
"Seeds come in different shapes and sizes so you need to apply different amounts of energy to kill them.
"How we set the mill up in different parts of the world varies slightly and we also do field trials on how many seeds we can capture with the harvester."
The design is constantly being refined but essentially it's a mechanical system that uses the harvester's drive to transfer power to two multi-stage hammer mills.
These grind, shear and pulverise the chaff once it has been separated out from the grain.