The Agritechnica show took place at the Exhibition Grounds in Hannover, Germany with 450 000 people attending during seven days. On display was this wheat header, which can fold down to a reasonable transport width without having to be detached from the combine, as is the usual practice.
This is particularly useful in certain areas of Europe where fields are small and fenced and refitting the header would have to be done in-field, which would damage the crop. With the folding header one can drive straight into the field and start combining. A Company in the UK made folding headers 44 years ago and set up an SA branch to sell its machines. Their combine header was a 5.5M wide unit, big for those days, which folded vertically in two sections so that the whole combine could drive through a 10 foot (3.05M) gate.
Geringhoff headers are quite popular in South Africa but the market for a folding unit may be limited to contractors who need them to combine small lands for start-up farmers.
Read the full report on the Agritechnica show in the 6 December issue.
