Harvester integrated weed seed control is now within reach for more growers following the release of a vertical, mechanical-drive version of the popular Integrated Harrington Seed Destructor (iHSD).
It also comes with several new features, but the biggest attraction for growers is its price tag, coming in at only $85,000 plus GST and fitting costs.
Peter Newman, Western Extension Agronomist with the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and WeedSmart, said about one-third of the nation’s grain growers were planning to invest in harvester-integrated weed seed control technology.
Peter said many growers were waiting for harvester-integrated systems to become more cost-effective and reliable, and the vertical iHSD was a positive development.
Invented by WA grower Ray Harrington and developed by UniSA with investment from GRDC, the iHSD is much lower in price since there was no need to run all the gearboxes associated with other systems.
Southern Branches with McIntosh & Son dealer principal Devon Gilmour, said the ongoing developments with the iHSD had inspired the team to develop a simple, alternative version based on the already high performing cage mills from the hydraulic-drive system, which could be driven consistently at 3000 RPM and achieved up to 99 per cent kill rates of targeted weed seeds.
“We wanted to maintain the mill system from the hydraulic version. With the capacity of the mills and the seed kill rate, we knew we had the right mill set to do the job,’’ he said.
“One of the keys was to drive the mill set consistently at 3000 RPM – the minute that drops off, it has the potential to compromise the mill capacity.
“The hydraulic system could always consistently achieve the speed and capacity and we have managed to match this with the vertical, mechanical unit with a belt set tested with only a 20 RPM variance of the target speed.”
For the 2019 grain harvest, a limited number of 100 of the vertical, mechanical iHSD have been allocated for Australian growers.
