Combine harvester

The combine harvester is actually a 3-in-1. It combines a mower, a threshing machine and a cleaning machine. The first combines came to Denmark in the late 1930s, but only became widespread during the 1950s. The Danish Dronningborg machine factory was first known for their production of cleaning machines and threshing machines – later the large, orange combines from Dronningborg became an icon.

Harvesting, threshing and cleaning

One of the biggest advantages of the combine harvester is that you don't have to handle the large sheaves with the grain on them. The previous forms of harvesting have all harvested the grain in the field, where they were tied into sheaves. The sheaves were raised so that they could fully ripen and dry in the field before being transported back to the farm. Here the sheaves were stored until the grain needed to be threshed and cleaned, and the straw could be used as bedding for the animals.

Back in the days of the scythe, a man would go and harvest the field, and a girl would go and tie the sheaves next to him – around the year 1800, an area of about one barrel of land could be harvested per day (1 barrel of land is about ½ hectare, one hectare is 10,000 m2).

Then came the first harvesting machines – reapers, which could harvest an area of approximately 8-10 acres of land per day – but they required 1-2 horses and 6-7 men to tie the sheaves.

Finally, the self-tying machines came along and another task was eliminated, as they could tie the sheaves themselves. But they were heavy and required 3 horses to pull the machine.

Back home on the farm, work tasks had also become more efficient. From threshing with a flail and cleaning with a sieve, people moved on to threshing machines and cleaning machines. At first powered by hand, later by horse power.

Later, the threshing machine was invented – and it could perform both tasks, both threshing and cleaning. The smallest threshing machines could be driven by power from the horses, the largest had to have engine assistance. When the horses provided the labor for the threshing machine, they were harnessed to a boom, in what is called a horse walk or horse lap. They walked around in the same circle while pulling the boom around and around – all day long. With the help of gears and drive belts, the power from the horse was transferred to the machines on the farm.

Many of the tasks associated with harvesting became more efficient, faster and required fewer people because the processes were combined in the combine and carried out in the field instead of on the farm. In short, the combine is a combination of several machines:

It reaps – lays the grain down and cuts it

It threshes – knocks the grain off the ears

It cleans – cleans the grain of weed seeds, chaff and straw residues

It throws the residue – the straw – out the back.

In 1962, the Dronningborg d600 was popular – and it is still in use, but probably mostly for enthusiasts. Today, the yield is measured in tons of harvested crop per hectare, and usually not in how many hectares can be harvested in a day, but a modern combine harvester can harvest 2-4 hectares per hour. Record attempts are also held both in yield per hectare and in the most tons of grain in a day. And these are large quantities. So we are unlikely to go back to scythe, flail and sieve when we have the combine harvester.

Pictures