THE overwhelming cause of header front damage is fatigue, according to a harvest repair specialist.
John Ward, Header Front Repairs, based in Swan Hill, Victoria, said a log of the headers that came in to his business this year revealed a diverse range of physical causes of damage, but said fatigue was nearly always the root of the problem.
“To ensure the crop comes off quickly in case of any rain event, drivers put in long hours behind the wheel and those long hours can take their toll,’ he said.
“Many contract grain harvesters and grain farmers are under pressure to get their crop off during the harvest, especially when there is bad weather on the way, and inevitably accidents happen,” Mr Ward said.
He said his business had seen a steadily increasing stream of business over the season.
“We began to see familiar patterns as to how harvester fronts were being crashed or damaged in 2014.”
The major two physical causes are hitting stumps and rocks obscured by rocks and uneven terrain, meaning the front is damaged by hitting the ground.
These causes can be correlated to the increase in header operation at night or at dusk when dust can present severe visibility issues.
The rest of the top five causes of damage are hitting power poles, collisions with movable objects such as utes and field bins and misjudging the header’s turning circle and hitting fence posts.
Gregor Heard
National grains writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
National grains writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
