New cane harvester can

cut 85 tons per hour

A new machine which cuts up to 85 tons of cane per hour has entered the mechanical cane harvesting field, and is now available to sugar growers in Queensland and northern New South Wales. It is the Greaves Super Har vester, which was designed and built by Greaves Enterprises in Woongarra, Qld. Fiji growers will be terested in its details.

THE SUGAR industry in Australia has undergone rapid changes in mechanisation during the past few years, and nowhere has this been more evident than in the field of mechanical harvesting. Labour shortages, and a fall in sugar prices, forced cane cutting contractors and growers alike to look seriously at mechanical harvesting methods, and it is now estimated that about 85 per cent, of all cane produced in Queensland and northern NSW is mechanically harvested.

The Greaves Super Harvester, which is claimed to be the ultimate in cane harvester design and efficiency, features a 6.354 Perkins diesel engine, which Perkins Engine Pty.

Ltd. consider to be one of the most unusual applications for this particular model engine.

The unit is fitted with an automatic transmission and has fourwheel drive steering. The driving and steermg arrangement, combined with the design of the base, enables the machine to operate with full efficiency in wet and dry conditions. The

cane cutting mechanism is operated hydraulically, and the operator can control each operation individually if required.

The harvester cuts the cane at ground level and lops the top off in one operation. The whole stick is then passed through the machine and into the bins at the back of the machine until they are full. The operator pulls a lever, and two neat bundles of cane are left behind the harvester.

These bundles are then picked up by a loader and placed on the cane trucks for transport to the mill, The cane loader is also a four-wheel drive, four-wheel steer machine, and is powered by a Perkins 4.270 engine with a torque converter transmission, The boom turntable swivels 360 degrees as does the cane grate.

Other details and price of this machine are not yet available for publication here, but the accompany ing photograph gives some indication of the extensive research and develop ment which has gone into the design of this machine.