Track and field star: Crafty plan saves harvest

Drenching rain and spiralling input costs forced grain grower Nick Brain to come up with an inventive solution to keep his windrower from getting bogged.

Fearing machinery would be bogged in sodden paddocks when it mattered most, Victorian grain grower Nick Brain got proactive to get through this year’s harvest.

The fourth-generation farmer was keen to purchase tracks for his windrower – with the theory that more surface area going through the mud would better distribute the weight of the machine on shifting ground and make it less likely to get bogged – but was not keen on the six figure retail price tag to have one shipped from Europe or the US.

So he designed his own steel tracks with a rubber belt – to bolt onto a Macdon 8 stud hub – and sent the plan to a Chinese manufacturer who agreed to build them in three weeks for a third of the price.

“It was very wet and the rain was not stopping. This might be a one in 10 year event but I couldn’t justify spending $100,000 plus with the input costs the way they are,” he said.

Steel and rubber windrower tracks Victorian farmer Nick Brain had made to get across sodden paddocks. Picture: Supplied

This year Nick planted 750ha of red wheat and 700ha of canola on his property west of Lake Bolac at Stavely in Victoria’s south west.

He recorded 300mm of rain for the month from October 12, when he would normally receive less than 100mm.

Nick’s tracks in action. Picture: Supplied

“The tracks were the difference between getting half my program done and none. I was thinking that it was slow going, about half of my usual pace,” he said.

“But then a contractor came to help me finish the harvest, using the same make and model of windrower but without tracks, and he got stuck six times in four runs.

“So, he left and I realised the tracks had been working very well.”

The harvest was made harder after wind had flattened most of his canola.

“My tractor is all on tracks and where it will go when it’s wet is ridiculous, you nearly cannot walk where it will drive. So I thought I’d get tracks for the windrower,” Nick said.

“And I only got stuck twice for half of my program.”

Nick Brain on his Stavely property. Picture: Nicole Cleary