Schinckel widens appeal with new rake

Visitors to field days around the country will have seen Schinckel Hayrakes showcasing its award-winning range built at its Naracoorte headquarters.

Opening act: Schinckel Hayrakes’ Opener Series is a no-nonsense unit geared to making the pick-up and baling of headed crops more efficient for operators.

VISITORS to field days around the country will have seen Schinckel Hayrakes show­casing its award-winning range built at its Naracoorte headquarters.

Schinckel’s latest engineering feat is its Open Series rake, which broke cover at the Wimmera field days in March.

The Opener Series is a no-nonsense unit geared to making the pick-up and baling of headed crops more efficient for operators.

Hayrake guru Simon Schinckel was intrigued to see many wheat farmers, particularly in the Mallee, using 30-40 foot (9m-12m) header fronts or large windrowers to cut their crops.

Owner Simon Schinckel. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Being left behind these hefty units were twin rows of crop varying anything from three to four feet (0.9 to 1.2m) to six to eight feet (1.8 to 2.4m) apart in the old measure.

Mr Schinckel realised driving a tractor and hayrake down these rows would necessitate tractor tyres running over both rows, compacting the crop and generally making it difficult to rake cleanly before baling.

So he invented a hayrake to put in front of the tractor to push the hay out beyond the tractor tyres. It could then be directed by the trailing rake into a single, easily manageable row.

The Opener is mounted on the front of the tractor and can be fitted in three ways — via front-end loader arms of Euro Style Quick Release design, bolted to the front counter weight via an A-Frame system, or via the front linkage arms.

Taking on the bigger is better mantra, Schinckel will be bringing his popular Opener Series to Speed where he will unveil a larger 12-reel version.

“We’ll have the Opener Series rake there that’s going to be mounted to the front of a Fendt tractor,” Simon said.

“I will be releasing a bigger Opener rake, which will be a 12-reel opener — the smaller ones are eight — and that’s capable of opening out to 22 feet (6.7m), which is very wide for what we’re doing. That’s been designed to turn two 16-foot conditioner mowers at once. “That will be displayed for the first time, we only just made that last week and it will be released at the field days.”

Mr Schinckel will also be bringing a 24-reel version of his popular heavy duty
V-Rake.

For more details, visit schinckelhayrakes.com.au or call into Schinckel Hayrakes at site 78 and 106.