Shelbourne Reynolds is to bring the Canadian MacDon draper combine header into the UK to boost the harvesting capacity of today’s larger combines.

“A combine’s output is often limited by the ability of the table to get the crop on board,” says Shelbourne’s Neil Smith. “The combine may have the capacity but in many harvesting conditions much of this capacity can remain unused.

The company plans to test the headers in different crops this harvest on New Holland CR9090, Claas Lexion 600, John Deere S690 and Case 9120 combines. Working widths on trial will be 9.1m, 10.6m and 12.2m (30ft, 35ft and 40ft).

MacDon draper headers are widely used throughout North America. The D60 Series fits all makes of combine and is claimed to significantly increase combine output when compared with auger-type tables.

Crop is cut with a hydraulically driven reciprocating knife, then falls head-first on to rubber conveyors which take it to the centre of the table. A cross auger on the rear of the header encourages tall crops like rape to move smoothly along the conveyor.

An intake auger then feeds the crop into the elevator housing. This has retractable fingers that pull in of the crop and present it head-first (and bunch-free) to the drum.

The first of the MacDon draper headers can be seen on Shelbourne Reynolds’s stand at next month’s Cereals Event.