Crop Catcher keeps profit from flying off

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REGINA — Not many machinery add-on investments pay for themselves in one or two seasons, but Brad Michel of Humboldt, Sask., found one.

He said preventing shatter loss in just one-quarter to one-half of a bushel per acre at the combine’s feederhouse will make it pay for itself after threshing six quarters of canola in two seasons, based on current prices.

“This idea seemed like a pretty good one (for) prairie farmers: keep more canola,” he said about the company’s new Crop Catcher.

Michel’s Industries makes a variety of products that gathers and protects crops in the field, so the new idea was a good fit.

The Crop Catcher, manufactured by Michel's Industries, mounts onto any combine header. | Michael Raine photo

Working with the inventor, the company refined the unit to mount onto any combine header. The high-impact, Lexan surface knocks the shattered canola back into the table and up the feederhouse, rather than allowing it to go over the back of the table or onto and off the feederhouse.

“At these prices, you want to keep all you can,” he said. “And you don’t want to add more (canola) volunteers to the field either.”

The shields are see-through and adjust so that they can be set for different machines or conditions and can be folded all the way back and out of the way when they aren’t being used.

“We tried real hard to break them in development. Real hard. We didn’t have much luck at it. The stuff is tough material and it should last a while,” he said.