K-Hart Industries is getting into the stripper business.
Kim Hartman is the president of K-Hart, and he said the company’s new Raptor stripper header is similar in design to the European-built Shelbourne Reynolds stripper headers that have been sold on the Prairies for 30 years.
“We’re very similar to theirs, we’ve just tweaked it. We’ve balanced it. They’re heavy on the left-hand side, ours is more balanced. There are a few other tweaks that we’ve made on it, but in principle, we’re the same,” Hartman said.
“It’s just in its infancy stage. We had one running last year. We’re going to build a handful for 2023, and then 2024 ramp up production as long as 2023 goes well.”
The heart of the Raptor stripper header is a drum that rotates opposite the direction of travel and captures straw between teeth on the drum, stripping the kernels.
The grain is then thrown toward a cross auger and fed into the combine’s feeder house.
Hartman said the header works best in a good crop, because in a thin crop there isn’t enough material to push the grain back, so losses will be higher.
Operators can move the deflector shield that runs the length of the stripper header in and out to match crop volume.
Stripper headers work well for cereals and flax, and they can also work for canola under ideal conditions, Hartman said.
“We tried canola. That’s a hit or miss. I think Mother Nature determines how successful that is. It also depends on what variety of canola and how much humidity there is in the air. We did lots of testing this year.
“There could be a limit also, if you were to grow a 60-bushel (canola) crop, that might be too thick so you physically can’t get all the crop through.”
Operators keep an eye on the stubble behind the stripper header to make sure it’s doing a good job.
“You know when you get geese or ducks in your field, how they eat just the kernels and leave all the stalks? That’s what the stripper header does if you can set them right. If you leave that head intact on the stem and all the kernels are plucked off, then you’re doing a good job of stripping.”
Stripper headers allow combines to finish a field faster because they don’t have to process straw.
“You can gain up to 50 percent more capacity with your combine. So, when you think of the cost of fuel, the shortage of labour because instead of three combines you can do with two,” Hartman said.
“The other thing, when you’re running, every time that hour meter in the combine clicks over another hour, there is depreciation of around $275 to $300 an hour when you go to trade your combine in.”
However, the biggest advantage of using a stripper header, and the reason for most growers’ use, is extra snow trapped by tall standing straw.
Hartman said it’s the right time to build and sell stripper headers in North America because there is renewed interest due to drought conditions in many regions.
“If it had been extremely wet, they (stripper headers) wouldn’t be getting much attention. But being so dry and if we do start getting dry and drier, everybody must do everything to help drop snow. The other thing it does is, in the growing season, it helps slow the wind down and heat down, so soil evaporation losses are a lot less,” Hartman said.
“The last thing you want is your neighbours to buy a stripper header, because they get all the snow.”
He said the Raptor stripper header has a good fit with the company’s offerings, including one of the premium zero-till toolbars on the market, the Spyder, launched in 2021. It is typically fit with the company’s 8612 double disc opener.
Logistically, the seeder will keep the company busy in the spring, while the stripper header will dominate in fall.
Agronomically, if a producer wants to use a stripper header, they need a seeder that can handle a lot of crop residue.
“Because you’ve got such long, ranky straw, you have to be pretty careful with hoe drills because they’re a big rake. That’s why you need a disc drill to really finish off the package because it doesn’t matter how much straw you got out there, we’re cutting through it,” Hartman said.
“With a disc drill you travel about 50 percent faster. So, it’s the same thing again, you can do way more acres per hour with the disc drill and get those keys shut off.”
K-Hart will build 41-foot Raptor stripper headers in 2023, and plans to build 31, 35 and 45-foot headers in future years.
