In the second week of August the team of the Hessenpark Open-Air Museum harvested their grain. Due to extremely dry weather, it could have been harvested two weeks earlier, but the date was already planned and fixed last year.
They had two sections to show all types of grain harvesting. The “living history team” performed the harvest of oats, demonstrating a timeline of 1776 with scythe and sickle. The wheat field was harvested with a combined harvester “Claas SF” from 1954. “SF” stands for “Selbstfahrer” which means “self-driving”, as it needs no tractor to pull and supply power. The Claas SF has no grain-tank, but a platform where 4 sacks can be filled in a row. Full sacks can be stored on the platform until they can be unloaded to a trailer, using an integrated slide. The engine is a very rare original Claas 6 cylinder diesel engine.
The SF was the first series of self-driving combined harvesters, build by Claas. The Claas SF came to the Hessenpark three years ago and was restored by a group of volunteers, who were really excited about the field-experience. For the machine, it was the first mission on the field since decades. Fortunately everything worked well. Beside the Claas SF, they could show a pulled combined harvestor “Claas Junior”, a binder by “Fella”, a self-rake-reaper and a reaper by “Schieferstein”.
"The yield was average" tells Volker Weber, agicultural manager of the Hessenpark, "were lucky to have some rain in May and June". After threshing in October, the grain and straw will be used for the livestock on-site.
Comments