Charles Koch, who farms 8090ha that straddles the SA/Victoria border north east of Frances, purchased a 12.9m Honey Bee Plus harvester front in November.

It’s been married up with a John Deere 9870 STS harvester, earning its keep in cereals such as wheat, barley and oats, plus beans and white clover.

“We were particularly keen on the Honey Bee because of its dual purpose possibilities for our clover harvesting,” Mr Koch said.

He likes the fact the Honey Bee Plus front can be operated either as a rigid draper when harvesting cereals or as a flex front when working in ‘speciality crops’, such as peas, lentils and white clover.

The dual purpose flexibility is made possible by an innovative system employing air bags.

This sees air pressure reduces when working with low-growing crops, ready for air to be added when switching to cereals, thereby transforming it into a rigid table once again.

“It’s easy and can be done in minutes from one point on the machine,” Mr Koch said.

“The new front also utilises the capacity of our harvester and we can actually travel faster with it on than we can with a 30ft auger front meaning our productivity is boosted,” he added.

On the Honey Bee’s double knife-drive system, he made the point that harvesting white clover was very hard on a knife system, principally because the low cutting height meant the knife guards often scrape the ground.

And since harvest is carried out while the clover is still green, dirt and sap from can build up and cause knife jams.

“With the Honey Bee double knife drive system you are only driving 21ft, not 30ft so it’s not as prone to jam,” Mr Koch said.

Honey Bee knives are hydraulically driven and each knife head has a pressure gauge to safeguard against overloading, aided by a relief valve.

“With the flexibility and the knife drive system you can increase your productivity by travelling a little faster knowing you can be very confident that you will not overload the knife,” Mr Koch said.

* Honey Bee Plus harvester fronts are available in the following sizes; 9.2m (30ft), 11m (36ft), 12.9m (42ft) and 13.85m (45ft) and can be ordered as a standard draper without the flex, if required.