WHILE wheeled combines were sometimes bogged to the axles during the 2010-11 summer harvest, a big tracked machine from Germany took on the conditions and won.
Seasoned harvest contractors in northern NSW and Queensland were so impressed with the abilities of the Lexion 750 combine fitted with Terra Trac that they nicknamed it ‘the duck’.
Developed and refined by CLAAS during the past decade, Terra Trac is the world’s only factory-engineered-and-fitted hydraulic suspension tracked system for combine harvesters.
It replaces conventional front tyres with 630 or 890 mm wide rubber tracks.
The track's footprint of nearly three square metres significantly improves traction in wet or sandy conditions, and stability at high speeds.
Jeremy Matthews, principal of Moree farm machinery dealership, WJ Matthews, said the soggy end to the season provided an unscripted opportunity to demonstrate the Lexion’s capabilities on two Bellata district properties.
“The first property had 25mm of rain three days before we arrived,” Mr Matthews said.
“We had to walk the Lexion three kilometres down the road because we couldn’t get near the paddock with the truck.
“The Lexion hardly left a mark on the paddock, which is amazing given that it weighs close to 30 tonnes when it’s full.
“In most places, the largest mark on the paddock was that left by the jockey wheel on the cutterbar.
“By comparison, some of the wheeled machines were leaving furrows that were a metre wide and 45 cm deep.”
On a second property, which had another 13mm of rain during the preceding weekend, water lay up to a foot deep and the soil was completely water-logged.
“There were 14 wheeled combines and as many tractors and chaser bins again working in the drier part of the paddock. We were harvesting while everything else was getting bogged."
Southern Queensland grain growers, Bill and Ben Mott, attest to the Lexion’s qualities. They took delivery of a new machine three weeks ago.
The Motts grow about 6000 hectares of winter cereals, chickpeas, sorghum and mungbeans each year on their 7600 ha aggregation, centred on “Warooka”, outside Meandarra.
“We had a lot of crop in the ground, one of our contractors fell through and then the wet weather started,” Ben Mott said.
“We needed a high capacity machine and we were considering a Lexion but we hadn’t really thought about the tracks."
They viewed a demonstration of the Lexion by CLAAS Harvest Centre Dalby, and quickly concluded that it was a machine for the times.
The Motts' Lexion has performed with distinction, Mr Mott reported.
“We’ve had quite a bit of rain and every one of our contractors has been bogged at some stage or another.”
“The Lexion never even came close to being in trouble.
“You can drive right through a contour of water and it hardly breaks the surface.”
