Yesterday (Monday), in my blog on our custom cutters, I mentioned "stripper headers" & ended up receiving numerous responses. I figure, as the younger generation says, "I must have done gone "VIRAL" on this deal! So today, I am blogging on stripper headers. The stripper header was originally conceived by Keith Shelbourne in the mid 80's as a derivative of the rotary head fitted to the company's pea harvesters. The 1st models were put on the market over in the UK back in 1989, & continual design enhancements have led to steady sales growth since. The basic concept of the stripper header is that a rearwards rotating rotor fitted in the front of the header is fitted with 8 rows of stripping fingers that strip grain from the crop as the combine moves the head forwards while it spins backwards. (Don't try this at home!). 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 deflect the grain back into a conventional auger & pan. The auger then moves the material to the center where it enters the feederhouse of the combine. 85% of the grain is threshed by the header meaning that the material entering the combine is predominantly grain, chaff, leaf & minal straw. The benefit of this reduced bulk entering the combine is significantly improved capacity & efficiency. Other benefits include improved performance in down, lodged & hailed crops, both in terms of crop recovery & speed as well as improved performance in green, high moisture & weed infested crops. Many farmers in low rainfall areas (like ours here in the Golden Triangle) have utilized the moisture retention benefits of stripped straw in their no-till farming systems. No tills, no frills, but it WORKS!

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