On Property Machinery Article
For Agco (Challenger Machines)
July 06, 2006

Challenger equipment boost for SA Farmers

With increased efficiency and improved productivity, SA farmer Graham Bruce and his grand-son, Nathan Voigt are reaping big dividends from their state-of-the-art Challenger equipment.

Trading as GW Bruce & Co, Graham and Nathan operate two Challenger tractors and a combine harvester - an MT765B 320hp rubber track unit, an MT575B 165hp wheeled unit, and a Challenger 670 combine harvester - on their 1385ha all cereal and hay producing Cooinda property near Manoora in South Australias mid-north.

We have lifted our productivity and improved our overall efficiency tremendously because we now have the right equipment for the various jobs in our crop and hay enterprises, Nathan said. Because of our two enterprises, and in todays economic climate, our aim and need is to get the jobs done quickly and efficiently without employing a lot of labour or contractors.

Crops grown on Cooinda include wheat, barley, canola, peas, lupins and oats for export hay. We produce about 2000 big square bales of hay and 1000 bales of straw (for bedding) a year, all of which is exported to Japan and Korea, Nathan said.

Cooinda enjoys an annual rainfall of 470mm (350mm in the growing season) which falls on a mixture of soils ranging from sandy loam through to heavy black clay which get very sticky after rain.

Nathan said the decision to invest in Challenger MT765B rubber track tractor was two fold.

We needed a tractor of 300 plus hp to pull our 12m seeding bar and six tonne air cart in wet conditions, but we also needed a tractor that put its power output onto the ground without sinking in and compacting the clay soils and limiting our production potential, he said. We also use the rubber track machine with the big square baler in the Spring, again to avoid as much soil compacting as we can.

We got rid of all the livestock on the farm about 10 years ago because of the compaction problems they were causing, plus the fact theres little feed around in winter and its too cold to produce fat lambs here. Today we only take in a limited amount of summer agistment on the farm to clean up some of the stubbles and keep summer weeds under control, he said.

We use the smaller rubber wheeled Challenger tractor to pull a prickle chain following seeding to level out the soil and to give a good seed and soil contact and during haymaking it works our Massey Ferguson 3.6m (12 ft) 1345 disc Haybine mower conditioner.

It is fitted with a front end loader and also plays a vital role, when fitted with forks, in our haying operations for stacking and transporting. Because all of the hay (and baled straw) is produced for the export market and has to meet very high quality standards, it is important that we get it into under cover storage quickly. To this end we are building a new 3000 plus bale capacity hay shed specially designed for easy access and internal working with the Challenger MT 575B tractor, he said.

Graham Bruce said the appeal of the Challenger 670 harvester was its hydro-drive rotor that is simple and straight forward with fewer drives and other moving parts without any compromise to capacity.

Graham has fitted the 670 with a 9.1m (30 ft) Agco draper front.

My aim with all equipment is to keep it simple, and as long as it works well and gives us the capacity we need, thats want we want, Graham said. The Challenger 670 certainly meets all those requirements.

Not only have we got more capacity than we had with our old harvester, we are using less diesel for the same work and because the machine has fewer moving parts, it is virtually maintenance free.

Farming today is all about increased productivity with lower input, labour and running costs and that is the reason we are using Challenger equipment, he said.

Coupled with an extended warranty Graham and Nathan got with their Challenger purchases, they have the peace of mind that on the rare occasions they need back-up service, their local Challenger appointed APS service contractor, Rod Schunke of Saddleworth Motors is based only 30 minutes away.

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