REM organized numerous VRX grain vacuum demonstrations this summer to make sure producers understood that this is more than just the same old GrainVac with a new name.
One of those demonstrations was on Greg Kessel’s farm near Dickinson, North Dakota. Like many farmers in southwestern North Dakota, Kessel grows sunflowers.
Sunflower producers know that handling and loading those seeds is always a problem. The seeds are light, so vacuum systems have a tendency to suck up more product than they can handle.
As a result, the augers jam, shear bolts break and precious time is lost.
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It wouldn’t be so bad if it happened only once per semi load, but it typically happens many times. Kessel said sunflower growers accept it.
He has owned other vacuum systems but had never tried a GrainVac. However, he was interested in hosting a GrainVac VRX demo on his farm this spring.
“We’ve always had a terrible time moving sunflowers, but with this new REM we made a few adjustments and it pretty well adjusted itself after that,” said Kessel.
“Right at the start, we pulled too many (sunflowers) and we plugged the auger and broke the shear bolts. But then we made the adjustments, and after that we were tickled pink with the way it ran. We loaded three or four semis without a single problem.”
Once the trailers were loaded, Kessel said he used the machine to clean out smaller bins, where it worked well.
But is he ready to buy?
“We’ve only got 35 hours on our current vacuum machine, so it’s practically brand new. They wouldn’t give us enough on trade, so for now we have to stick with what we’ve got. But when we’re ready to switch systems, this new REM is what we’ll be looking at for sure.”
