Focus on throughput and product protection - RK22 in operation at the Wolkenburg farm
Keiler 2 Classic at the Wolkenburg farm: a special Keiler 2 harvests around 220 hectares of table potatoes every year in the south-west of Saxony. The Wolkenburg farm uses a RK22, equipped with deflector rollers instead of a rotating finger comb on the pintle belt 2 and a overloading bunker. Jens Wendler, ROPA area manager, and Axel Drescher, from service and sales partner LTZ Hartmannsdorf, provide support and service for the machine.
Wilhelm Stassen, who originally comes from the Rhineland, took over the business in the Zwickauer Mulde almost 30 years ago. Today, he runs the farm with ten permanent employees, cultivating crops on the fertile loess-clay soils and annual rainfall of 650 to 700 mm.
The potatoes are distributed via Friweika, a cooperative society involved in the processing of table potatoes, in which Stassen's company also holds a stake. A particular interest relates to the storage method used by the members of the cooperative, as the potatoes are stored in large boxes with a volume of around 3.8 tonnes. Stassen fills the boxes in his yard with the help of a drop bunker and corresponding box fillers. In this way, he can store up to 9,500 tonnes at two locations. The potatoes are then delivered to the cooperative society from December to March.
Storage in boxes has a number of advantages, e.g. due to the low storage height of just one metre, the potatoes are optimally protected from bruising. In addition, wet batches or tubers with a high amount of soil can also be stored relatively well.
Keiler 2 RK22 Classic with overloading bunker for higher efficiency
In order to increase the efficiency and shorten the harvesting time, a few years ago, Wilhelm Stassen chose the Keiler with an overloading bunker. Although initially Stassen and his team faced some challenges, they kept optimising the system. Today, not only the harvester, but also the transport vehicles use GPS technology. This allows the drivers to focus all their attention on the harvesting and loading process.
In addition, the Wolkenburg farm uses a swather as a support for the potato harvester. It lays the potatoes from two ridges between the respective neighbouring ridges. The pickup of the RK22 is fitted with full-length lifting shares and half ridge drums to ensure that the deposited potatoes can be picked without being damaged.
This approach was motivated not only by the increased harvesting performance, but also by the improved product protection. Since there are always enough potatoes in the machine, the tubers protect each other from bumping into cleaning elements.
Mr Stassen also relies on a well-planned strategy for field preparation in spring: he uses bedding separators to create the ideal soil structure for potato cultivation on the available surface.
The RK22 Classic specialises in combining power and high throughput with maximum product protection. The powerful hydraulics and very few deflection points in the cleaning path ensure maximum efficiency. It is therefore hardly surprising that Wilhelm Stassen also favours the yellow potato harvester from Bavaria.