Solid lumps found in granular fertilizer are more than just a nuisance. They cost time and money.
Those really big heavy lumps waste hours if you try to bust them up. They waste both hours and dollars if you haul them to the landfill or bury them. Medium size lumps can jam up an auger. Smaller ones can plug air delivery systems. Lumps generally put folks in a bad mood, especially if they think about the cheque written to buy them.
Who would be willing to cough up $6,500 for an auger attachment that grinds fertilizer lumps into pea-size pellets? If you answered me, you should be aware that the LumpBuster is just such a machine and it’s manufactured by Westcap Ag in Saskatoon.
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The LumpBuster is a steel box that fits snuggly inside your auger hopper. Shafts with hardened steel studs running through the box are spun at high speed, powered by the bin sweep motor or hydraulics from an auger mover, said Ed Peters of Westcap Ag.
“We hear from farmers that clumps are a real problem in the stuff they buy from China. That’s why we have those studs that break up the clumps no matter how big. It keeps up with your auger regardless of the lump size. Simply run the motor faster if you have bigger or tougher clumps,” said Peters.
“Some guys will work on these lumps a long time because hauling them to the dump is like hauling money to the dump. Other guys can’t be bothered.
“I haven’t seen a fertilizer lump yet that doesn’t get smashed by the studs. Our video shows a little bit of fertilizer shooting over the canvas, but it’s a very small amount compared to how much you waste if you haul the lumps away. Besides, it can be swept up or sucked up with a grain vac.”
Peters said Westcap is developing a new, really large machine for commercial operations like big warehouses that handle bad shipments. He said the concept of the giant LumpBuster is the same as the farm-size unit, but it’s a lot bigger and has its own hopper.
“It has giant teeth that just bash stuff to pieces. You go into these big fertilizer sheds and you sometimes see pieces two feet square. If you had a lump the size of a Honda Civic, you could throw it in this machine and it would grind it up.
“It has three stages. You throw a big lump in at the top and it gets beat down. Then it goes to another section where it gets beat down some more. Then the final stage is like the regular LumpBuster. It gets turned to little pea size bits, but not to powder or dust.
“We’ve built the prototype, so now we’re going to be hauling it around to farmers and commercial outfits with big bad lumps to see how it works. We’ll be letting guys use it for free. Then we’ll take it back and make some more tweaks.”
In a world where farmers have been forced to accept the fact that input prices escalate every time they turn around, Peters has good news. The stainless steel model, which previously listed for $7,500, now lists for $6,500. The powder coated mild steel model lists for $5,500. He recommended stainless.
“That powder coat paint is great most of the time. It really seals things up nicely. But all it takes is a little pinhole and the fertilizer gets in there and destroys the steel. Just a little bump against the bin opens up the coating.”
LumpBuster had been built by RainyDay Manufacturing for more than a decade until WestCap Ag bought it out last year. One of the changes made by WestCap was to standardize the body size. The original design used different bodies for different sized augers. The new design uses the same body for all eight-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch augers. It has adapter plates for different sizes, allowing farmers to buy one LumpBuster for all three sizes. WestCap also makes a model for conveyors.
