McArthur Agriculture today officially announced JK Machinery’s JCM VibroMAX Grader as a key component of its growing equipment line-up, aimed at supporting farmers adopting regenerative and agroecological farming practices, particularly intercropping.
McArthur Agriculture offer JK Machinery’s extensive range of vibrating sieve cleaners and graders to meet the needs of farmers and commercial operators looking to process combinable crops at capacities ranging from two to 100 tph. Grain moves across vibrating sieves and is separated based on physical dimensions before entering an aspirator where it is separated by weight and aerodynamic properties. Vibration technology delivers simple to control high output processing with low energy requirements, on a small footprint.
“Groundswell was the perfect platform from which to introduce the JCM VibroMAX Grader to British and Irish farmers,” said John McArthur, managing director, McArthur Agriculture. “Attendees understand the importance of looking at changing farming practices to work alongside the environment, improve soil health and create value added products.”
Interest high
As expected, high levels of interest in the VibroMAX Grader have come from farmers who have already started to introduce intercropping into rotations. They understand that crops grown together can deliver physiological benefits including, improved pest and disease resistance, greater water and nutrient utilisation and improved weed suppression.
“The separation of these mixed crops has typically been achieved on old cleaning equipment or second-hand systems pressed into service to support on farm trials,” added Mr McArthur. “As trials are scaled up, greater investment is often required in the post-harvest processing and separation. The VibroMAX Grader fits the bill for those farmers who now need higher capacity solutions that provide the best cleaning and grading results.”
The larger JCM VibroMAX 10133G was on display in the UK for the first time at Groundswell this year. It is a triple decked machine, equipped with three sieves which clean and separate crops to a high standard in a single pass at up to 40 tph, each crop then being aspirated individually to ensure the best results.
The already popular JCC VibroCompact 08, designed to meet the needs of farmers who are starting to introduce intercropping, has the capacity to clean between five-15 tph. It has two sieve decks and can be used for both standard cleaning applications and the grading of intercrops. However, repeat processing may be necessary to achieve the best results. It is a versatile machine and great for starting post-harvest processing experiments.
With both the VibroMAX and VibroCompact cleaning and grading performance can be controlled through the changing of sieves and adjustment of several process variables, including machine angle and vibration frequency.
Opportunity to assess performance
“When processing crops the variability that exists within a field and even the ear quickly becomes evident,” explained Mr McArthur. “To give farmers the opportunity to assess the performance of the VibroMAX and the VibroCompact enabling them to select the most suitable specification, we have built a demonstration lab at our Scunthorpe depot. The lab will play a key role in helping farmers to achieve the best possible post-harvest processing results by maximising the value of their crops.”
Angus-based farmer and co-founder of Arable Ventures & Cloud Farming, James Hopkinson, is already practicing many of the principles of regenerative farming and will be harvesting his first pea/barley and spring wheat/linseed intercrops this year.
“We had already invested in a JCC VibroCompact 08 to clean milling oats and linseed and have also used it for cleaning home saved seed beans, linseed, oats, wheat and barley and it has delivered excellent results,” explained Mr Hopkinson.
With customer specifications tightening on his milling oat contracts, the VibroCompact allows Mr Hopkinson to avoid significant financial penalties for delivering grain which does not meet the required cleaning specifications. In addition, the ability to turn around home saved seed quickly by having his own cleaning system has proved very valuable.
“Our investment in the VibroCompact will deliver increased returns,” said Mr Hopkinson, “We will now benefit from its cleaning and grading functionality to separate our post-harvest intercrops, creating added value crops and improving the environmental credentials across our farming businesses.”
