WHY NARDI SUNSTORM?
1. A header that can even harvest lodged sunflower off the ground (photo 1).
2. Combines innovative solutions that can cut header losses several times over compared with equivalents (photo 2).
3. High harvesting speed – up to 15 km/h.
4. Harvests regardless of the direction of sowing.
5. Clean grain in the tank thanks to quality separation of sunflower heads from the stalk.
6. Italian quality, backed by a three-year warranty.
7. Payback period – from a single season.
The spring sowing campaign for spring grain and industrial crops has just wrapped up. Ahead lies an even busier period of crop care and harvest. Having a strong material and technical base plays an important role in achieving good results and high yields. That’s one of the components of every agricultural enterprise’s success. Quality, timely execution of process operations during crop care substantially adds to the future harvest’s potential. At the same time, harvesting is no less important a stage in the agricultural-production process.
In this article we want to share with you the leading-edge solutions offered by the “Astra” Agro-Construction Alliance in the field of harvesting, specifically sunflower harvesting. We’ll talk about the Nardi Sunstorm sunflower headers, made by the Italian manufacturer Pegaso S.R.L.
The time comes when a farm’s head or specialists face the question of choosing a header for harvesting sunflower. With a large number of offers by type, name and design features, making the choice isn’t so simple. What should you settle on? What criteria are the priority ones? Harvest quality under different conditions, header losses, performance, reliability, ease of maintenance, price – and are there headers that combine all these criteria?
We have the answer to all these questions – it’s the SunStorm headers from Nardi.
Nardi SunStorm sunflower headers have been supplied to Ukraine since 2013. Over this time they’ve proven excellent. Performance, harvest quality with minimal crop losses, reliability and ease of maintenance. All of this is combined in SunStorm headers from Nardi.
Still, the equipment manufacturer – the Italian company Pegaso S.R.L. – isn’t resting on its laurels, and keeps surprising with innovative solutions for this type of header. This further sets its product apart, considering the efficiency and minimal losses these headers deliver when harvesting sunflower.
Let’s take a closer look at Nardi’s latest developments for SunStorm headers. What sets this product apart from others?
First, let’s start with the development that makes the header more versatile and lets it harvest lodged sunflower crop. Yes, these might be non-standard harvesting conditions, but as practice shows, such cases do occur in Ukraine too.
This solution is a patented set of stalk lifters, installed on the row dividers. After this retrofit, the header lifts lodged crop from ground level, leaving no losses after the pass. The innovation proved its effectiveness harvesting lodged sunflower in fields in Cherkasy region in 2019. Calculating the additional benefit from using this solution is very simple. It all depends on the size of the area with lodged crop, and the answer to the question of how much harvest would have been left in the field if it had been harvested with the header already available at the farm. In some cases the payback period for a header with this kit can be a single harvested sunflower field.
In the photo – a set of stalk lifters. Used for harvesting lodged sunflower stalks. Installed on headers with a working width from 6 to 12 m.
The next innovative solution worth paying attention to – brush retainers to prevent grain spillage between row dividers.
In the photo – brush retainers to prevent grain spillage between row dividers.
Used to prevent sunflower seeds from spilling out between row dividers.
Installed on headers with a working width from 6 to 12 m.
According to the manufacturer, using brush retainers on SunStorm headers from Nardi cuts header-loss figures by 0.7%.
Converting the loss reduction into t/ha, or UAH/ha, at Ukraine’s average sunflower yield of 2.5 t/ha, 0.7% would be equivalent to a yield of plus 0.02 t/ha, or 200 UAH/ha for one harvest season.
Knowing your agricultural enterprise’s sunflower acreage, you’ve already calculated the additional benefit from using such a kit.
And in closing, we can note: thanks to the manufacturer’s effective, innovative approach, Nardi SunStorm headers are opening new horizons in quality sunflower harvesting under a variety of conditions.
AGCO group head:
Leonid Kulyk
Tel.: (050) 334 83 53
Email: l.kulik@astra-group.com.ua
