REPORT: In our 2022 profi harvest special, we had a small picture of an intriguing machine, looking like a cross between a self-propelled sugar beet harvester and a combine. Since then, there has been a lot of speculation about what this machine could actually be. Andy Sewell has put his years of harvesting design experience to the test. Here’s what he thinks …
Soon after the initial sighting of the three-axle machine, a short video was posted online … and there have been several others since. In fact, from what
we can make out, there are two variations of the ‘Black Beast’, with the 2024 version of the machine fundamentally different to that seen previously.
Functionally, the first machine was a graff harvester, meaning straw was placed in a swath behind the machine, but everything else including the grain and chaff, hence the name graff, ended up in the giant tank on top. Said to be based on the McLeod principle, no crop sieves were fitted. If grain and chaff separation occurred, then this was carried out separately, in a farmyard for instance, with a stationary machine.
This latest version, however, has sieves and clearly operates in much the same way as a conventional combine harvester, even if it’s packaged a little differently But why would you first build a graff harvester, and then build a combine harvester? The main answer to both questions may well be energy, with one suggestion doing the rounds involving an agricultural contractor with a large anaerobic digester. A secondary answer is regulation.
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