Grimme is building a new generation of selfpropelled potato harvesters. To gain a feel for what’s on offer, Andrew Faulkner climbs aboard the SF 170-60 two-row bunker harvester, the only one of its kind currently operating in the UK
There’s nothing new about self propelled potato harvesters. Indeed these massive machines were all the rage back in the mid-1970s, when the notoriously volatile potato industry was last awash with cash.
Today the cash may not quite be back by the bucketful, but the interest in self-propelleds certainly is, mainly because the large growers are getting larger and looking to further increase efficiency through more mechanisation. And that’s precisely why Grimme is investing in self-propelleds – and investing big time. The German firm has had four-row machines lifting on the Continent for some time and, for next year, plans are afoot to build two-row manned and unmanned units for the UK.
Four-rows are unlikely to feature prominently on this side of the Channel because the configuration dictates offset four-row destoning and planting, a system that has already been tried and largely ditched. Of much greater UK interest would be a six-row harvester to fit in with Grimme’s recently launched three-bed planting regime. That, however, is for the future – and probably some way off.
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