Having seen JK Machinery’s JCM VibroMAX 10133 vibrating sieve cleaner at Groundswell last year, the event’s founder John Cherry has invested in a unit, supplied by McArthur Agriculture, as he looks to increase intercropping on the farm.
“After discussions with McArthur Agriculture, I took the decision to invest in a VibroMAX,” explained Mr Cherry. “We had previously been using an old two-sieve pre-cleaner to separate crops but we often had to put crops through it twice, and one of the crops would still not be as clean as we wanted.
“Mono-culture does not happen in nature and so we are planning to increase intercropping into our crop rotations, to help improve soil health by increasing water and nutrient utilisation, driving up pest and disease resistance and weed suppression.
“But with larger amounts of crops to separate it was clear that we needed to upgrade our cleaning and grading capabilities so that we could add value to harvested crops on-farm.”
The JCM VibroMAX 10133 is a triple-decked machine with three vibrating sieves which clean and separate crops in a single pass, with each crop being aspirated individually with twin aspirators. Performance can be controlled by changing the sieves and extensive adjustment, including machine angle and vibration frequency.
Mr Cherry has been experimenting with intercropping for around eight years, mainly growing peas and rape as both were easy to separate with his previous machine. Now he is looking to grow wheat and beans, oilseed rape and beans, and aims to get to the stage where each field has two or more combinable and non-combinable crops.
“A lot of farmers are looking at intercropping trials, which can add complexity to crop rotation. However, it does allow savings to be made on inputs and the combination of potentially smaller yields of both crops can deliver a larger yield than if just one crop had been grown,” he said.
Frustrated with the lack of summer shows that they wanted to attend, the Cherry family started Groundswell seven years ago, focused on regenerative agriculture.
“Intercropping is the future as it becomes an integral part of regenerative farming. McArthur Agriculture, with its range of cleaning and grading equipment, can help farmers to make the transition to intercropping by providing the cleaning and grading machines to quickly and easily separate different crops, increasing their value post-harvest,” concluded Mr Cherry.
Visitors to Groundswell will be able to see McArthur Agriculture on stand PFD15. For more information go to www.groundswellag.com
