Dynamic interchange between wheel & track advice

[rambler]

Rambler: Took your comments on the sweet corn and pea harvestors. Did some research and found this ground compaction research by Prof. Godwin: http://www.tapg.net/pdf/2009_semina...eld_day_DickGodwin_Alleviating_Compaction.pdf
In itself this is useful research for us. Note the GPS log on the 2nd page. Imagine you're harvesting with the track, all the turns (quite a few there) and transport you do with the wheel. Looking at this log, can potentially save a lot of money. Am I way off here?

Here's the deal with sweet corn & peas:

The farmer plants, feeds, and weeds the crop on land he controls.

The big company comes in when it is ripe and harvests it, come heck or high water. They do _not_ care about compaction or what the field looks like when they are done. It's not their problem. The following year they are on a different piece of ground....

So, yes, decreasing compation would be a _great_ thing, but the farmer will not have any say in this.

It is the canning companies that you have to impress. The feature they want is to harvest these sensitive crops _on time_ come heck or high water. Your adversing pitch to Oxbow (are there any other sweet corn harvestor cos left?) is that the system is dependable, manuverable for cornering, but will drive through any kind of deep mud. That is who you need to impress and the issues they care about. Money is no object if you can drive through any conditions but still make easy turns on the ends of the field, and travel down the road to the next field.

The compaction issue won't matter to Oxbo or the canning companies, tho of curse it is an important thing.

--->Paul

 

[davidlevin]

Fascinating!

I gather you mean companies like Green Giant, Pacific Valley Foods, Birds Eye Foods and the like. You're saying they are the ones who are actually doing the harvesting? So the need for such a device may be for the individual farmer, but more so for these companies? A nice curve ball, thanks!

We looked into Oxbo and will try to contact as you suggest.

One more question that still baffles us. Why don't they have row crow tractors with tracks? What's preventing someone from making narrow tracks?

 

[radman1]

Fascinating!

One more question that still baffles us. Why don't they have row crow tractors with tracks? What's preventing someone from making narrow tracks?

Some guys like tracks for row crops and use them. IMHO, they just aren't as ideal as a wheeled tractor. Any turns with a track, smashes down the crops more compared to a wheeled tractor. Tracks on a tractor in general don't turn sharply because the equipment they pull is in general big. Big turns create a lot of track not running straight and more crop damage. They do make narrow tracks, about 19-20". Could they be made more narrow? I suppose but there may be limits on how narrow based on egineering problems beyond me. Also, remember, most bigger ag wheeled tractors have duals in the rear and MFWD (some with duals in the front as well). If the tract is too narrow, it could actually have a smaller foot print compared to a wheeled tractor and lose its advantage. Most farmers don't use wheeled tractors with duals in the field after crops are up. Again smashes down too much crop. Most wheeled ag tractors will have an 18-19" wide tire. Most commonly used row crop width is 30". Europeans use a wider wheeled tractor. I assume there rows are wider.

I should note, that as no-till is becoming more and more common, the only time we run over row crops (soybeans, corn) after they emerge is for spraying. Round up ready corn and soybeans are becoming the norm. Few farmers cultivate or touch the ground once the crop is up. I don't need a massive tractor with tracts for spraying to pull my 1200-1500 gallon wheeled sprayer. Big farmers use a dedicated spraying rig which has tall, skinny, wheeled tires with 4WD. In general, spraying doesn't require a lot of traction. Compaction is still an issue but when I am covering 90' at a time with the spray booms, I do not travel on the ground very much. Some farmers will mount big tanks and spray booms on the 3 pt of tract tractors and use them that way. This allow them to spray in wet conditions that would stop me.

IMO, the big market is mainstream farming. Corn and soybeans. Peas, vegetables ect are an important market but probably dwarfed by the mainstream farming market.

 

[rambler]

IMO, the big market is mainstream farming. Corn and soybeans. Peas, vegetables ect are an important market but probably dwarfed by the mainstream farming market.

Mainstream farming is a commodity business. Low bidder, be able to produce the most bushels for the least cost.

We don't pay for innovations unless they give us more bushels, or a lot cheaper production costs. (GOM & GPS technology is sucking up all the money - it allows anyone to do tractor driving for $10 an hour as the computers do all the work.) There is a _very_ small profit line. There might be 2 million of us farmers in the USA, but we don't change that much. Me, I've adapted to working with the wet spots I have, rather than invest many $100,000's in iron & rubber. (I saw a used set of tracks for sale in the ag paper today for $52,000....)

The vegtable growers have a much bigger profit margin, even tho they use fewer machines. They can pay for newer technology. With only 4 or 5 major canning companies, you don't have to advertize your innovation to very many people - less cost for this company to 'impress' potential buyers. If you get one of the companies to buy, they will look at buying 50 or 100 units. Not the '1' that use mainstream farmers will buy.

The canning companies have enough profit margin to pay for innovation, if it ha a chance to work. Their checkbook is a little fatter.


John Deere makes a line of tractors with 2 tracks, for row crop work. The problem is turning around - you wipe out so such of your end rows turning around.

The Cat/Agco tractors also come with narrow tracks to follow row crops.

I think Case only has the big quad-tracks, with articulated steering & wider tracks. I don't believe they have a rowcrop track?

The challenge is to get the tractor wide enough to fit through the rows. We run 30 inch rows on most of the row crops in the USA, and machines have gotten too big to balance on 60 inch centers. So now we are looking for 90 inch centers, but that straddles 3 rows and puts us off-center with the odd row. So we are looking to straddle 120 inches, be that takes long axles, lot of stress.

We end up going back to duals, on 60 & 120 inch centers, with duals on the front wheels as well. It takes a lot of stress off the axles with the duals.

--->Paul