John Deere Plus-50 II™ engine, hydraulic and transmission oil and filters offer savings in oil change intervals for the ACF company fleet
ACF has just purchased a new John Deere MY26 JD 570 cane harvester, and while it’s under warranty, they plan to trial an extension of the servicing interval to 350 hours
For sugar cane farmers in northern Australia’s largest irrigation area, maximising profits means drilling down to find out where cost savings can be made, without jeopardising production.
Australian Cane Farms (ACF) operates an aggregation of more than 4,500 hectares in the Burdekin Irrigation Area of Queensland, making use of the region’s plentiful sunshine and irrigation water to produce up to 430,000 tonnes of cane per season.
Integral to the operation is their fleet of six John Deere harvesters and 26 tractors, ranging in size from smaller 55 Series up to the giant 8Rs that do the bulk of the heavy lifting on the ACF aggregation’s three-metre controlled traffic farms around Ayr.
ACF has a full-time mechanic in charge of all fleet servicing but relies on Honeycombes’ John Deere dealership in nearby Ayr for warranty work and major services, and for the past ten years, has been working with the dealership to fine tune its lubricant requirements.
Savings from extended interval
ACF sources its Plus-50 II™ engine, hydraulic and transmission oil and filters in bulk from the dealership, and with its help, has identified savings in extending the oil change interval on the company’s tractor fleet out to 500 engine hours.
“In 2017 we bought a new John Deere RT tractor, and because it came with a four-year warranty, the dealer advised us to trial an extended service interval, using all John Deere lubricants,” ACF General Manager, Ryan Matthews, said.
“Economically it was probably only 10-15% dearer because Honeycombes supply us with the lubricants and filters in bulk, in 1000-litre shuttles, but that small extra cost has been outweighed by the longevity of the oils.
“We ended up trading in that original tractor with 7,000 hours on it, and it had been serviced at 500-hour intervals since day one.”
Before the switch, Ryan said they used other suppliers and changed the oil at 250 hours on older tractors, however, the price difference wasn’t significant enough to warrant continuing.
“You might save a dollar a litre on product, but if you’re changing it twice as regularly, it starts to add up,” he said.
Proposed harvester interval extended
Right now, there’s a friendly arm wrestle going on about the oil change intervals applied to ACF’s fleet of six John Deere cane harvesters, between Ryan and ACF Harvesting Manager and chief mechanic, Steve Mizzi.
While tractors are on 500-hour intervals and haul-out trucks on 400-hour intervals, it’s long been a tradition in the sugar cane industry to change out oil in harvesters at 250 engine hours, due to the extreme nature of the work.
“Even though it’s just based on historical experience, that interval is ingrained into a lot of people,” Ryan said.
ACF has just purchased a new John Deere MY26 JD 570 cane harvester, and while it’s under warranty, they plan to trial an extension of the servicing interval to 350 hours.
“We’ll sample the oil at regular intervals, and the dealership will analyse it, to reassure us that the oil is not breaking down quicker than it should,” Ryan said.
“If we get positive feedback from the analysis, it’ll give us the peace of mind to stretch the interval further.”
Cane harvesting runs for around six months from June to November, with three teams of two machines each operating in split shifts for 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The cane is harvested and supplied to the local mill within six hours, and within another six to 12 hours has been processed into raw sugar for export.
Harvesters cut the cane one row at a time and cover only 10 hectares a shift, but the throughput is significant, with each machine moving 1000-1200t of cane daily.
Manager will ‘wait and see’
“We run three commercial harvesting groups in split shifts, with one group starting at 2am and finishing at midday and the other two starting between 5 and 6am and finishing around 3 or 4pm,” ACF Harvest Manager, Steve Mizzi, said.
“The 250-hour interval is more a general rule of thumb in the industry, and it’s a big step to extend it to 350. The harvesters are in the paddock going every day, seven days a week for 22-24 weeks of the year.”
He admits that changing to 500-hour intervals would technically halve the service cost but will wait until the trial is complete before backing the change.
“Our harvesters average just over 1000 hours per season, and at 250-hour service intervals, that means four oil changes and four sets of filters per year.
“We’ve had good results from 500-hour intervals for our tractors, but they operate at much lower revs than the heavy harvesters under heavy loads.
“If we get good feedback from the trials, that we can maintain reliability at 350-hour intervals, it’ll give us the confidence to stretch it out.”
In the meantime, growers can rest assured in the knowledge the John Deere Plus-50 II engine oil is backed by John Deere’s 500-hour engine oil warranty, providing them the confidence to extend service intervals while maximising machine uptime and productivity.
- For more information visit John Deere Australia’s Oil, Grease & Coolants webpage at https://www.deere.com.au/en/parts-and-service/parts/maintenance/oil-grease-coolants/
John Deere CH570 Sugar Cane Harvester specs
