Australia taught the world to harvest
Three times in our history, Australians have changed how the world harvests grain. The stripper, the Sunshine Harvester and the self-propelled header were all invented here in Australia.
It’s the same problem every year. Get the crop off before the weather turns.
1843: A labour shortage in South Australia
The colony had a wheat crop getting bigger every year and nowhere near enough men to cut it by hand. Grain that stood too long shook out and fell on the ground.
John Ridley, a miller at Hindmarsh, built a machine in 1843 that stripped the heads off standing wheat and threshed them in one pass. Late that year he took 28 hectares near Wayville in a single week.
It worked here because of something specific to this country. In a hot, dry summer the grain ripens on the stalk, standing up, which is exactly what a stripper needs. By 1857 half the South Australian wheat crop was coming off by machine.
Worth noting that a farmer named John Wrathall Bull also claimed the invention, and the argument ran for more than a century.
1884 to 1924: From the Sunshine Harvester to the self-propelled header
Four decades on, a young Victorian named Hugh Victor McKay built a machine that stripped, threshed and cleaned in one operation. That became the Sunshine Harvester, and his company grew into the largest manufacturing enterprise in the southern hemisphere.
But the stripper still had one weakness every grower knows. It couldn’t pick up a crop that had gone down. One storm before harvest and that grain was lost.
Headlie Taylor was a wheat farmer and self-taught engineer at Henty, in southern New South Wales. His third prototype, shown at the Henty Show in September 1914, could lift the heads of a damaged crop and recover grain that would otherwise have stayed on the ground. He joined McKay in 1916, and in 1924 built the Sunshine Auto Header: the first self-propelled harvester produced in real numbers anywhere, in the T-shaped configuration that’s still the standard layout today.
What’s changed, and what hasn’t
The pressure hasn’t changed. The weather window still decides the year.
What has changed is the weight. A modern header with a full bin and a wide front is a very heavy machine, and it’s being asked into paddocks that aren’t always dry when the crop is ready. That’s the problem tracks solve.
A track system puts a much bigger footprint on the ground than tyres do, and three things follow:
- Less compaction. Spreading the weight over a larger area cuts ground pressure substantially. Manufacturer figures put the reduction at over 65 per cent for a suspended system.
- Flotation. More footprint means getting onto softer ground and keeping going when a wheeled machine is sitting at the gate.
- Stability. A wider, longer footprint steadies the machine, which matters as fronts get wider and header placement gets harder to hold.
For a multi-generational operation, the compaction argument carries past this season. The paddock you harvest in the wet is the paddock you’re planting next year.
Tracks without a new machine
You don’t have to buy a tracked header to run one. Conversion track systems bolt onto the machine you’ve already got, in three versions:
- Standard. The straightforward conversion. Big footprint, reduced compaction, better traction.
- Suspended. Adds double oscillating bogie wheels for ride quality and better ground contact over uneven going, which helps hold header placement.
- High speed. Has its own integrated final drive, so you keep your road speed between paddocks instead of giving it away to the track system.
All three run a hydraulic tensioning system that holds the sprocket and lug in proper contact, which is what protects the track over the long run.
Combine track systems available now
Harvest is when you find out whether you needed tracks. A wet week, a paddock you can’t get into, and a crop sitting there.
If that’s been your season, it’s worth a conversation now while it’s fresh. We supply conversion track systems right across Australia. Tell us what you’re running and the ground you’re working on, and we’ll confirm what fits.
Call 1300 65 11 43 or get in touch.