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New combine gets harvest down to a T
One of the first customers to buy a new John Deere T Series combine for 2008 was Daniel Rooke of D & P Rooke in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Daniel and his 10 year old son George visited the Zweibrücken harvesting factory in Germany, where they were presented with a golden key to the T670 combine that came off the production line last spring before being delivered to local dealer Farol of Milton Common for its final pre-delivery inspection.
Daniel and his wife Penny have been managing their farming business together since it started in 1997. They currently rent and contract farm around 1700 arable acres including oilseed rape, winter barley, spring barley and wheat, plus 600 acres of grass.
The AutoTrac equipped T670 is also the Rookes’ first John Deere combine, although they already run a wide range of other John Deere machines including 10 tractors, from a 35hp 3520 compact model up to a recently ordered 330hp 8530, an 840i trailed sprayer that was new in 2007, a mower and a round baler.
“We have a very good relationship with Farol going back many years,” says Daniel. “They provide an extremely good service, and we’re very happy with reliability of the John Deere machines, so when we decided to replace our combine harvester they were one of the dealerships we naturally talked to.
“I went to look at a pre-production T Series combine at a field demonstration in Norfolk in 2007, and although the crop was flat and wet and horrible, I liked the look of the machine.
“Basically I wanted a replacement for our previous combine that would give us increased output, but not dramatically – it had to be a conventional machine, not a massive rotary, as we have restrictions on field size and a lot of road work to cope with, and our drying capacity is limited. I also wanted to a hillside machine because our land features a lot of banks and slopes, plus we also market all our straw so we need to keep an eye on straw quality.
“In the end the T670 fitted all our criteria for a new combine, it was the perfect match for our requirements. I thought I’d take a lot of convincing to change make, but Farol put the best deal together and we’re very happy they did – I would say this combine is definitely the best piece of John Deere equipment we’ve ever invested in.
“We’ve been really pleased with it – it’s straightforward to operate, adaptable to all crops and conditions, and the power is very well matched between the engine and the guts of the combine. Working in good harvesting conditions, we were achieving outputs of around 46 to 48 tonnes an hour, and even in poor harvesting conditions we were getting our lowest straw and sieve losses ever.
“In the end we got the winter barley in dry, around 400 to 500 acres of winter wheat to milling quality, and most of the spring barley with malting quality without any problems. Due to the weather the last 500 acres of wheat had to be harvested at up to 26 per cent, so we decided to make a joint investment with a neighbour in a crimping machine and clamped this part of the crop for use as a moist cattle feed, which we’re looking to sell as well as use for our own beef cattle and sheep.
“Our new 840i sprayer came equipped with AutoTrac automatic steering, so I was familiar with this technology, as we had already decided were going down this route for spraying and drilling. AutoTrac made a tremendous difference on the combine, particularly in this year’s harvest, with the extra stress of working long days and nights to beat the weather. Out of all the applications we have for AutoTrac on this farm, I reckon this system made the biggest contribution.
“When you’re tired and sitting in the combine at 2am, it really makes such a huge difference when the job of steering is taken away from you, and you can see the combine covering the field with a full bout width on every pass from the first cut to the last.
“Another very pleasing aspect has been the combine’s fuel efficiency, which has been brilliant. I reckon we averaged about 38 litres an hour, but I expected it to be a lot higher than this to be honest. I believe we’ve used a lot less fuel this season for a lot more output.
“Historically we’ve always bought second hand and run the combines for three or more years before replacing them, so it was a big decision to go down the route of buying new, but with the harvest we’ve just had, I hate to think what we’ve have done without it. The sheer versatility of the T670 has been fantastic – we were doing 100 acres plus day after day in a really difficult season, so we definitely made the right decision.”
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