Revolutionary New Grass Seed Stripper

Revolutionary New Grass Seed Stripper COMBINES Headers 12-1-4 A new rotary brush "stripper" which attaches to a tractor front end loader and selectively harvests only mature seed is revolutionizing grass seed harvesting, says Weldon Miller, president of Ag-Renewal Inc., Weatherford, Old., the manufacturer-marketer. "It allows you to harvest high quality, high purity seed ù without the hit and miss guesswork of harvesting with a conventional combine." The new Woodward Flail-Vac replaces the bucket on your tractor's front end loader. It takes a 12 ft. swath and is equipped with a 21 in. dia. cylindrical nylon brush which, operating at 300 to 600 rpms, strips mature seed off standing plants. "Unlike a combine sickle, which cuts plants off and harvests everything ù including green seeds in varying stages of maturity, plus a lot of sticks and trash ùthe `Stripper' harvests only ripe seed and leaves the plant intact, allowing later-maturing seed to ripen on the standing plant," ex-plains Miller. "Most owners generally go through fields 4 and 5 times over a 3 to 5 week period, depending on weather conditions, to strip off seed as it matures. "Operating field speed is generally between 6 to 9 mph. The brush turns with an upward motion, just opposite that of a combine reel, to strip seed off erect-standing plants with virtually no shatter loss. It's not uncommon for farmers to bring seed with 90% or higher purity right out of the field on each pass, compared to only 25 to 40% purity with a combine. Combines can cover more acres but they're generally not nearly as productive when you figure total net pounds of pure seed harvested from a field," says Miller. The new Woodward Flail-Vac, invented by Aaron Beisel, an Oklahoma farmer, has been field tested for five years throughout the entire U.S. The latest new 12 ft. wide production model is all-aluminum and weighs only 750 lbs. "It's light enough so you can use it with tractors as small as 50 to 60 hp.," notes Miller. "This makes the machine especially popular with custom grass seed harvesters. Instead of having to move big combines from farm to farm, all they need is a small trailer to carry a smaller tractor equipped with a loader and our new aluminum Flail-Vac." Its nylon cylindrical brush, made up of 7.5 in. long bristles spiraled onto the cylinder, is powered by a completely independent, pto-driven hydraulic system. You use the tractor's hydraulic system to raise and lower the loader to match operating height of the Flail-Vac with height of the crop being harvested. The machine has a built-in hopper which self empties into a truckorwagon simply by raising the loader. The 12-ft. wide Flail-Vac sells for $10,000, including the independent hydraulic system. A smaller 6 ft. wide model, designed primarily for small fields and re-search plots, sells for $7,000, including hydraulics. For more information, contact FARM SHOW Followup, Ag-Renewal Inc., 1710 Airport Road, Weatherford, Old. 73096 (ph 405 772-7059).

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