Flexxifloat helps recover lodged crop at harvest time

For WA grower Garrett Browning, the late heavy rain in 2014 at his Kondinin farm in the central Wheatbelt was a disaster and his hay crop seemed like a write-off.

A drive around the paddocks showed substantial lodging and any chance of recovering the 2000 hectares of crop was described as "Buckley's to none".

After some online research, Mr Browning came across the Flexxifloat 250 from Flexxifinger Canada, which suggested he could recover some of his crop.

It seemed like a big investment, but he thought he'd give it a go.

"They were just brilliant, they blew us away," Mr Browning said of the result.

He told the Primary Sales team they coped with the weight of the crop and got it into the front - and he managed to recover 100 per cent of the crop across 2000 hectares.

"We were concerned that the finger would dig dirt and put it into the header," Mr Browning said.

He quickly found that if properly set up - and as level to the ground as possible, then catching dirt wasn't an issue.

The Flexxifloats are set at 30 centimetres across the front, at an angle of roughly 22 degrees with the front flat to the ground.

The tip for easy set-up was to set one finger using the level on a smartphone and then raise the front and walk along as you set each spacing.

Mr Browning said it was worth the investment and it paid for itself in the first year.

Since then he has used the Flexxifloat 250 across his pulse program, "going across the direction the peas grow" with great success.

Primary Sales is recognised for its work in helping growers reduce harvest loss.

Warrick Finlay, Primary Sales branch manager - Queensland and Northern Territory, said "this is another tool we believe can help growers in lodged crop situations and particularly when harvesting lentils, peas, chick-peas, and sorghum crops".