Henty 2017: Bourgault 24m drill wins Henty top gong

Bourgault’s 24m 3420 PHD Paralink hoe drill has beat out 17 other entries to pick up the coveted Henty Machine of the Year award at the 2017 Henty Machinery Field Days.

The winner was announced at the opening ceremony of the field days, which commenced yesterday and will run to September 21.

The “farmers choice” award is presented to the most outstanding piece of agricultural machinery exhibited at the field days. The competition was open to all machines on site that were released into the Australian market in the 12 months prior to the field days.

Judging criteria for the award include machine purpose and suitability; scope of application; construction; ease of maintenance and service; ease of operation and adjustment; availability of parts and overall value for money.

According to the panel of judges, which consisted of a group of regional primary producers, the Bourgault drill’s unique TransFold folding mechanism that allows it to fold down to 5.4m for transport in under four minutes was really impressive.

“The folding mechanism was quite complex – for a big machine like that it takes a lot of engineering,” says judge, Mark Bowyer.

“There has been several prototypes tested in Canada – we were impressed with the overall quality of the machine.”

“A computer in the tractor sets out the sequence of the fold mechanism to make it fail safe. For a machine that is 24m (80ft) wide, it folds up quite narrow and the rear wheels have steering allowing it to track along nicely on the turns.”

The drill was released in late June to a group of dealers in Howlong (NSW) and made its public debut at the Henty Machinery Field Days.

The 3420 PHD Paralink drill was originally debuted to the North American market in 2015, with units up to 30m wide out sowing crops in the last two seasons.

Bowyer expects the hoe drill to have applications in broadacre cropping areas of Western Australia and northern NSW.

Visitors to the Henty Machinery Field Days can catch a glimpse of the drill in action every day at the Local Land Services plot site at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

According to Bourgault NSW territory manager, Jonathon McKenzie, there are few manufacturers in Australia offering drills as large as the 3420 Paralink drill, with most of them being end-tow units.

“This means it takes hours to get them ready for transport whereas the 3420 can be folded and unfolded in less than four minutes,” he says.

“Since we showcased the 3420 to dealers in June, there has been a lot of interest created with customers as well, and we have been doing a lot of quoting.”

Highly commended

A highly commended award went to the innovative Coolamon All Rounder from Coolamon Chaser Bins.

Released just in time for the Henty Machinery Field Days, the machine is a combination of a chaser bin; a seed and super grouper; and a fertiliser spreader, which the company claims is a world first.

Judge Mark Bowyer says the All Rounder’s build quality and engineering was outstanding.

“The feature of this chaser bin was the conveyor belt underneath – most chaser bins have an auger and this has done away with that,” he says.

“It has two bins separated by a wall, while the conveyor underneath brings the product up to two augers at the front for use as a seed and fertiliser unit for filling air seeder bins.

“The conveyor results in less contamination between two different products. The belt cleans itself out before switching over to the other auger at the front.”

Two spinners at the back of the machine allows it to be used as a spreader for urea application.

“The belt can be reversed to carry the product to the back, with an in-cab computer controlling the product coming out of the actuator slides of the two bins, and dropping on to the belt,” Bowyer says.

He adds the tracks on the machine is also a useful feature for reduced soil compaction.

“Like all the Coolamon products, it is well built, with service and spare parts available locally.”