With a season under the belt one Proserpine cane grower swears by his John Deere CH9 Series cane harvesters for reducing work time and faster haul-outs
With half the 2023 crushing season now complete, Proserpine QLD cane farmer Sam Orr has found the two-row John Deere CH960 Harvester has transformed the demands placed on the team at LOS Harvesting.
The business is a partnership run by three neighbouring farmers – the Orr, Large and Auld families – that cut the group’s 1,300ha of cane and contract harvests another 20% of that tonnage.
For the past five years, LOS’ roster of seven staff, including seasonal haul-out operators and permanents, has worked seven days a week from the end of June to mid-December to harvest and deliver cane to Wilmar Sugar’s Proserpine Mill.
“That can wear you down over the six months of crushing, but now with the CH960 we do eight days of harvesting and we shut everything down for two. We all have the same days off and we haven’t had to employ any more staff,” Sam, who is a fourth-generation cane farmer, explained.
“Having days off during the season is a really positive thing and also allows us to keep up with other farm work such as fertilising and planting,” Sam added.
John Deere CH9 Series cane harvesters operate at slightly slower speeds than single-row units but cut two rows of cane simultaneously, meaning cane bins are loaded in nearly half the time and the overall cycle of the haul-out fleet is dramatically reduced.
Sam saw John Deere’s CH960 in operation for the first time in October 2022 at the Condon family’s Tully farm in north Queensland and was impressed to see how fast the trailers were filling.
“We were attracted to the CH960 because our harvest estimate was around 130,000 tonnes, which was right on the limit of throughput for our single-row CH570 harvester,” Sam added.
Backed by Green
After completing his apprenticeship as an electrician at Proserpine Mill 14 years ago, Sam took on the job of running the LOS Harvesting team and estimates they’ve cut more than one million tonnes of cane.
The families operate a fleet of six John Deere 6 Series and 7 Series Tractors, two of which are used to fertilise and plant crops. They started with a John Deere 3520 harvester in 2012 and advanced to a CH570 five years later before investing this year in a CH960 from RDO Equipment in Mackay.
The machine has achieved one-and-a-half times the haul of the previous harvester, with its overall efficiency saving a significant amount of time and money.
“Instead of 1000tonne/day we’re harvesting 1300tonne/day or 140-150tonne/hr and our haul-outs are a lot faster. The average time to fill a trailer used to be six minutes but now it’s down to three or four minutes,” Sam continued.
“While the fuel efficiency of the CH960 is very similar to our previous CH570 with maybe a small gain, it’s really significant in the haul-outs – we estimate we’re using 0.2-litres/tonne less fuel than last year, which adds up over the season.”
All of the group’s farms are on controlled traffic at 1.8m rows. The CH960 was designed with controlled traffic integration and has a wider base that aligns the tracks directly in the centre of the rows, with the aim of reducing soil compaction as the machine only travels on every second interrow.
Sam said the CH960 was surprisingly manoeuvrable for its size, and because it travels at slower speeds, crop damage is reduced.
“Its footprint is so wide that it makes it very stable compared to the single row harvester, and it’s a lot easier to learn to drive for someone who hasn’t spent much time in one,” Sam said.
“If you calculate that you turn the machine around 100 times a day which takes about a minute-plus, straight away you’ve halved that to 50 turns, so you’ve gained an hour in time.
“And because we’re cutting at nearly half the speed we used to, down from 8kph to around 4 or 5kph, there’s less harvest damage which makes it a lot better for plant health.”
While the harvesting team was forced to down tools for two-and-a-half weeks due to rain in July, Sam said the wet weather was beneficial for the crop and Proserpine Mill is anticipating a healthy 1.8 million tonne throughput this season.
He estimates he’ll harvest 8,000 tonnes off his own farm, while the CH960 continues to attract plenty of attention in the district. “I’d like to see a few more of them, it’s a step in the right direction, and I might have to start charging for rides – I reckon I’ve done several hundred,” Sam concluded.
John Deere two-row CH960 cane harvester specs
| Engine Make | John Deere | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard power @ 2100 rpm | 360 kW 485 hp 490 CV | |||
| Cooling system type | Automatically controlled, hydraulically driven reversing cooling fan | |||
| Fuel capacity | 1135 L 300 gal. | |||
| Standard chain and shoes | Sealed chain Shoes: 560 mm 22 in. | |||
| Maximum whole topper reach | 4.2 m 13.75 ft | |||
| Crop dividers: Float control | Automatic float control | |||
| Basecutter: Standard disc diameter | 58.4 cm 23 in. | |||
| Chopper: Standard blade configuration | Ten blade (five per drum), differential | |||
| Fan diameter | 1.5 m 5 ft |
| Make | John Deere | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | 6136NW301 | |||
| Emission certification | Tier 3/Stage III A | |||
| Standard power @ 1900 rpm | 360 kW 485 hp 490 CV | |||
| Standard power @ 1700 rpm | 400 kW 540 hp 544 CV | |||
| Optional engine model | 6136NW401 | |||
| Optional engine emission certification | Final Tier 4/Stage IV | |||
| Optional power @ 2100 rpm | 420 kW 567 hp 572 CV | |||
| Optional power @ 2000 rpm | 440 kW 595 hp 600 CV | |||
| Cylinders | Inline six, wet sleeves | |||
| Displacement | 13.6 L 830 cu in. | |||
| Injection pump | Electronically controlled | |||
| Aspiration | Turbocharger with air-to-air aftercooling | |||
| Engine speeds | Low idle 800 rpm Full throttle 1900 rpm | |||
| Alternator | 200 amp 12 V |
