Shapovalenko Peter

Our farm was formed on the basis of once disappeared collective farm (kolkhoz) whose ground had been sold or rented for the most part. There was no more equipment to till the ground, most of our fields were abandoned. Things started to improve later on: when the land under cultivation was expanding step by step and we decided to buy expensive and efficient grain harvesters.

We began with the rotary harvester Massey Fergusson, its high efficiency, no-standard threshing system, powerful motor and American assembly attracted our attention. However, it turned out that the harvester was often subject to derangement when working on humid and weedy soil, it didn’t thresh it but clumped it and threw it out. The harvester Massey Fergusson cut 2000 ha in 2004, but in 2005 it hardly cut 800 ha as some problems blew up. Particularly, by mistake, operators set a sieve pan drive mechanism to high speed operation, it was used for a season and then the sieve pan drive shafts broke down. We buy spare parts at the nearest agency of Massey Fergusson, but they do not work well, moreover, once we were waiting spare parts for a month. We had to address directly to American agency and we received spare parts not later than a week after our request and we paid only the customs clearance.

Having made sure that rotary system wasn’t fit for our fields we decided to return to the traditional threshing system, so, we bought Fendt. We chose it because it looked up-to-date and had an onboard computer in the cab. However, some problems also blew up at this point. First of all, we couldn’t find an operator capable to operate it. The point is that most of our operators have finished nothing but vocational schools where they heard nothing else but: «Get into a machine and work, while working you’ll learn your trade». Secondly, the onboard computer always signalizes decreasing of the shaft speed, but it keeps quit when the shaft stops, for instance, because of a breakage of the driving belt. In such case operator believes that everything is okay. After some time, we began to check its operation aurally in the same old way.  The expenditures connected with spare parts are great: after the expiration of the warranty period we replaced the sieves and the screen frame by new ones.

Last year we purchased Don. It has already been used for one season. We have had no expenditures connected with spare parts yet, except for a belt, but these are not real expenditures. We are satisfied with its operation, it’s fit well for work on the weedy soil. In general, it is suitable for our fields. We are satisfied with the receiving beater in the inclined surge shaft. The beater levels incoming substance well, the substance enters the drum already smoothed. The harvester does not produce a «barking» noise as other harvesters do. Our operators are familiar with the machine. So, here is no problem with a stuff. The harvester works with the same efficiency as the harvesters Massey Fergusson and Fendt do, they all cut about 30 ha per shift.

Now we are going to refuse to use an imported equipment and to buy the harvesters ‘Don». They are designed for our fields. Moreover, we have already made sure that it’s not unfeasible to change Ziguli for Mercedes, if I may say so… Especially as you have already designed a new harvester that is superior to the harvester Don-1500� in its technical level. So, we will develop together…

Economical performance of the equipment