Victorian and South Australian ag machinery dealer, Emmetts is now offering Shelbourne Reynolds stripper fronts.
With users espousing the benefits of stubble retention, lower fuel use and faster harvesting times, the company said they will offer sales, service and parts for the stripper front at all 10 of their branches.
The Shelbourne stripper front has been extensively tested through the Wimmera and Mallee last season and again this year leading to significant interest, particularly from the no-till cropping community.
The stripper header was conceived by UK manufacturer Keith Shelbourne in the mid 1980s as a derivative of the rotary head fitted to the company’s pea harvesters.
The first models reached the UK market in 1989 and the basic concept involves a rearward rotating rotor fitted with eight rows of stripping fingers that strip grain from the crop as the harvester moves the head forward.
The speed of the rotor can be varied according to crop conditions.
After the grain has been stripped by the rotor, a series of deflectors within the header move the grain back into a conventional auger and pan.
This auger moves the material into the feeder house of the harvester.
Eighty five per cent of the grain is threshed by the header meaning that the material entering the combine is predominantly grain, chaff, leaf and minimal straw which helps to improve the harvester capacity and efficiency.