BISO 3D – RAPESEED, SOYA, CEREALS
ONE HEADER FOR ALL CROPS
Which segment are our customers coming for the BISO 3D technology from? Does this technology pay them off? Are these clients part of the core community of BISO who are loyal to the approved brand? Or are they new customers who make decisions only on the basis of a pragmatic economical evaluation?
The tests of the FLEX module of the 3D VarioFlex 1070 AIR i header done on the BISO Hurbanovo branch in 2018 with the header with working width 10.7m. The tests were focused on the calibration of the patented ground pressure sensors during the work with header angel adjustment in position “on top”.
Group No.1: The soya farmers
A big boom is related to soya as a crop, which is important for the food and the machine industry. Soya needs a lot of water and this, with relation to climatic changes, is a little problem with some emerging questions. Apart from this, soya is planted and playing an important role in Slovakia. The farmers harvest the soya in many different ways. In the past, they often bought the SoyaFlex extension which was possible to fit on standard headers without the Vario system. For example: http://navigator.biso.eu/en/en-biso/harvesting-technics/biso-soja-flex-2/ (with only one exception which is the Claas Vario header up to 7.5m on which we are able to fit the flex extension).
Nowadays, the professional farmers often buy additional fix headers with a mechanical FLEX module. In BISO, we call such a system as “half FLEX” (50% FLEX). Many owners of the BISO CropRanger header´s different model lines with angle adjustments have realized, that a smaller acreage of soya on flat fields (a bigger problem is the track from sprayers) can be well harvested with the header adjusted “on top” - with VARIO on 70-80%. This is possible with the BISO CropRanger HighLine, TrendLine or TrendLineLight headers. For this kind of a job, they use the headers with a working width from 6.5m up to 7.5m. The advantage of the BISO CropRanger header is that you can leave the dividers on the header and stand the side knives up in the same time and in case of catching the green material in this area, you can easily switch them ON/OFF. Farmers who are producing BISO soya are starting to have serious problems with weeds. Even though they are applying the regular inter row cultivation in mechanical way, the weeds in the row in the space between individual plants and during wet periods are growing and sometimes the diameter of weed is more than 20mm. Such parcel are in some cases not harvested or some customers are starting to think about a two phase harvest.
From the picture is possible to see the technological potential of the newest FLEX module from BISO. Notice that during the calibration on the max. deflection, there is zero torque load on the knife bar. The parallelograms of all sections are working completely independently.
The BISO CropRanger VX TrendLineLight FLEX header belongs to the group of the „50%FLEX“. It is a classic TrendLineLight model equipped with a FLEX module which means that it is in the 2D category. It is a fully mechanical system and it was introduced to the market in 2007 already under the name PREMIUM PLUS. At this time, this variant did not achieve any special sales results. It is a paradox that the customers still come back to the CropRanger VX TrendLineLight FLEX variant and it is not only because the of soya, but the main reasons are the flat crops of high yields wheat. Including a significantly higher knife wear, such a header is a high profitability solution.
To make sure, the trend among farmers with soya production is clear. They want to have only one header with a possibility to harvest rape seed, cereals, pea, poppy, rye, oat or soya in a very flexible way and in top quality. Just in case of pea and soya, the rate of the return of the 2D FLEX technology and generally of the 3D FLEX is very high. In this area, we have some conflicts among the requests for rapeseed and soya harvest. For rapeseed, it is ideal to have a header with a big working width (12m optimum) thanks to a low lose on the side knives; for soya, however, the big header is not automatically an advantage.
The correct adjustment and setup of all controllers of FLEX module took us a years of testing and many hours of thinking. The electronic is much faster than the driver and thanks to this, the target was clear from the beginning – a fully automatic mode for work. The combine driver will go in swath, lower the header … and the BISO automatic mode of driving the header will start working.
Group No.2: Agronomists „doing“ the barley with high yields
Agronomists who are able to make 8-10 tons of wheat yields per ha (and often much more) are the part of the second group. And this group is starting to be the main customer segment interested in 3D VarioFlex, usually in the top AIR i specification. Their calculations are clear and very simple. When the crop beats down, the whole harvest is lying on the ground. They usually take care of big farms with big fields and thanks to the lack of professional combine drivers, they have the most powerful combines on the market in their fleet. Often times, with GPS and automatic steering. The headers with a working width of about 9-12m are the standard for them. Nearly all of them are doing the rapeseed, in many cases also peas and some of them some special crops. For such customers, the ability of the header to move forward on the VARIO floor, to adjust the angle of the header, to switch ON the FLEX module and generally to drive in fully automatic mode is a very important parameter. Their combines need enough material. They have the biggest machines for soil preparation and seeding so the headers about 10-12m are not a problem for them. The tracks from sprayer can be the only difficulty. And in many cases, they have their own grain carts. For this group of customers, this is a fully valid rule: “FLEX is not only for soya but generally for flat crops”.
We have done the first tests of air suspension with an intelligent management of the FLEX module on our CR9090 SmartTrax in 2017 in soya near Hurbanovo, Slovakia. The air suspension and the system of parallelograms worked very well, we have since changed the intelligent sensing of the ground pressure forces and software significantly.
Group No.3: Contractors driving for VIP clients
The contractor should offer the newest technology and introduce it to service. To offer something that the farmers do not have yet. In some cases, this is a reality … It should be. But in actual reality, this does not happen. The contractor is paid based on the harvested hectares, without any relation to the harvested tons and quality of the work, but on a “standard unit” coming from the previous times and this is the hectare. The rate per hectare is that low that the contractors are in many cases actually just running older machines and only one issue interests them and that are the running costs. Nevertheless, we have farms that request quality for a reasonable price and who push their contractors into investments in the best technologies available on the market. And we are able to appreciate such an approach. Good example are the tracks, the CTF strategy or the 12m headers for rapeseed harvest. This group of contractors is another group of the end customers for the BISO 3D technology.
Some input parameters influence the correct function of a modern header. The most important is the position of the header, the angle of the header (adjustment “on top”) and sensing of the force – this means in the front knife area.
The owners of high performance combines
And there are more and more of these customers. They are owners of the more powerful combine harvesters, usually the models such as the New Holland CR or the CLAAS Lexion and a kind of a novelty is the activity of the customers with model S from John Deere. The combine owners and crews usually have already have experience with such powerful machines and have a clear idea what is the potential of their combine (usually limited just by the header). And on the basis of this, they are searching for a new solution. But the owners of the most powerful combines in the world are not the only clients of the BISO 3D VarioFlex, although, they are very important.
One header for all crops
The BISO VarioFlex AIR i header, this means a header with a HYBRID frame, parallelograms of the FLEX module, the VARIO system, air suspension and an intelligent fully automatic mode, is coming with the following advantages:
> no additional header or attachments for special crops
> harvesting different crops without time consuming adjustments of the header
> no additional maintenance due to its simple, reliable floor structure – keeping the proven variosystem
> no losses due to its intelligent ground-following system – Flexmode
> the smallest distance for the auger – cutter knife – is only 180 mm, excellent for short crop harvesting
> with correct application the ears of the grain come first to the threshing drum – excellent performance of the combine
> practical application for all known crops
> stress-free harvesting – clear relief of stress on the driver
> extremely short barley
> laid grain
> harvesting of cereals and rape seed in same time window
> extremely matted cereals
> high demand on uniform stubble height (following soil cultivation)
Brochure for download: http://navigator.biso.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BISO-3D-VARIOFLEX-AIR-i-ENG.pdf
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