An Updated, Automated Commercial Swather for Harvesting Forage Plots

Abstract

Harvesting forage plots can be tedious, time consuming, and labor intensive without the proper plot equipment. Various forage plot harvesters have been developed over the years and were designed primarily to decrease the amount of hand labor needed for plot harvest, increase the ease of plot harvest, and do it at an affordable cost while maintaining or improving data integrity. Automated, commercially built, forage plot harvesters cost $50,000 to $80,000 USD or more. This article describes an automated forage plot harvesting system that has an electronic data collection system, harvests plots quickly and efficiently, and can be used for both plot harvest and commercial‐scale fields. The automated harvesting system consists of three major components—a weighing platform, a discharge platform, and an electronic data collection system. Only one person is needed to operate the automated forage harvester and collect yield data. The average time required for harvesting a 3.0 by 4.6 m (10 by 15 ft) alfalfa (Medicago sativa subsp. sativa) plot is ≈40 s and can handle plot samples weighing as much as 54 kg (120 lb). The forage plot harvester can be switched from harvesting research plots and made ready to harvest commercial fields or vice versa in approximately 30 min. Our automated forage harvester performed exceptionally well during its first year of operation in 2006. The cost of the materials for the automated weighing system was slightly less than $6000.