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Mini Combine Harvests Smaller Farm Fields
You can harvest grain from small plots for your family’s personal needs with a Boaz Mini Combine. It’s easy to plant small plots of grain and seeds for personal use. However, commercial combines are too big, and harvesting by hand is slow and hard. One of the few alternatives to large commercial combines or refurbished old, smaller combines has been research plot harvesters.
    “Research combines are very expensive, but the Boaz is reasonably priced and designed for small grain plots,” says Eddie Qi, EQ Machinery. “It’s made in China and assembled here in the U.S. Most of the parts can be found off-the-shelf if repairs are needed. Other parts will be available by order.”
    Qi heard about the Boaz from a friend and began importing them. He says reaction to the small combine has been positive with small farms, religious communities and local groups buying and sharing the combines.
    “It’s ideal for the small landholder who wants to raise an acre or two of grain for a few animals or his family, a baker who wants to raise his own grain for making flour, or for those who simply want to control their food supply,” says Qi. “It’s popular with people who want organic, non GMO grain.”
    The Boaz has a very simple, yet unique design with twin cutter bars. The forward cutting bar is mounted on the gathering reel to clip the grain head. The height is controlled by a hand-operated hydraulic lift. A second cutter bar with mechanical height control is mounted near ground level ahead of the drive wheels for cutting straw. A threshing system mounts over the front drive wheels.
    The operator sits on an open-air seat over the rear dolly wheel. The engine mounts ahead of the operator’s legs and between the front and rear wheels. Controls are similar to a two-wheel, walk behind tractor. The Boaz features a 3-speed forward plus reverse transmission. Steering is accomplished with the aid of brakes on the front wheels and foot pedals on the dolly wheel.
    The grain and straw heads are augured to the feeder housing and then into an axial flow threshing chamber where the grain is separated from the straw. Grain and non-grain materials fall through a sieve. A manually damped vacuum on the cyclone separator pulls the chaff off. The grain falls into a bag on a platform beneath the separator.
    “The grain needs additional cleaning for storage or sale,” says Qi. “We suggest running it through a stationary seed cleaner.”
    The combine weighs only 948 lbs. It’s 11 ft. long, 5 1/2 ft. wide and 4 1/3 ft. tall. It has a rated cutting width of 2 1/2 ft. and a feeding capacity of less than a pound per second. It’s powered by a 13 hp, EPA certified, gas engine.
    “It has a loss rate of less than 2 percent for wheat and a crushing rate of less than 2 percent,” says Qi. “It’s intended for small plots and will harvest less than a sixth of an acre an hour.”
    The Boaz Mini Combine is priced at $4,999. It’s designed for wheat, oats, rye, barley and other small grains, as well as sunflowers and other small oil seeds.
    “It hasn’t been tried on beans, but I hope to test it on them this year,” says Qi.
    Qi hopes to introduce a slightly larger combine, the Boaz 1.0. It runs on tracks and is nearly 3 times the weight with twice the cutting width and feed capacity of the Boaz Mini Combine. It claims significantly increased productivity of under 2/3 acre per hour, higher quality output and less grain loss.
    “The Boaz 1.0 has a 22 hp diesel engine, but it didn’t meet EPA certification,” explains Qi. “I am looking for an affordable 25 hp diesel replacement and would appreciate any suggestions FARM SHOW readers might have.”
    To see the Boaz Mini Combine in action, check out the video at www.farmshow.com.
    Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, EQ Machinery, P.O. Box 777, Medford, Mass. 02155 (ph 603-869-7800 or 877-260-8610; info@eqmachinery.com; www.eqmachinery.com).


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2013 - Volume #37, Issue #4