McArthur Agriculture has announced that the JCM VibroMAX Grader from JK Machinery has been added to its equipment line-up, aimed at supporting farmers who are adopting regenerative and agroecological farming practices, particularly intercropping.
The company offers an extensive range of vibrating sieve cleaners and graders to meet the needs of farmers looking to process crops, with capacities from two to 100 tonnes per hour. The grain moves across the vibrating sieves and is separated based on the grain’s dimensions. It then moves to an aspirator where it is separated by weight and aerodynamic properties.
“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 in the VibroMAX Grader has come from farmers who have started introducing intercropping into rotations. The benefits of this can include 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 10133G was on display for the first time at Groundswell this year. It is a triple-decked machine, equipped with three sieves to clean and separate crops at up to 40 tonnes per hour, with each crop then aspirated individually. There is also the VibroCompact 08, designed to meet the needs of farmers just starting intercropping, with a capacity of between five and 15 tonnes per hour.
“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 practising 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.”