Interest in chaff carts as a method of harvest weed seed control is finding a niche with smaller croppers and in mixed farming operations.
Western Australian manufacturer, Tom Lewis of Tecfarm said the market was steady.
“There was almost exponential growth from about 2009 to 2014 with it doubling each year, but in the last couple of seasons numbers have settled to about two thirds of the peak.”
Part of that slowdown may be anchored to the arrival of the iHSD which is set to roll out units to fit out up to 60 machines this year.
But, it is horses for courses Mr Lewis says with the iHSD carrying a hefty price tag.
“Adding a iHSD puts most headers up close to the million dollar mark and that’s probably out of the league of a lot of farms.” he said.
Chaff carts also compete with a handful of control measures including chaff decking (conveyors depositing residue on each wheel track), chaff lining and narrow windrow burning.
Mr Lewis said the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative reckoned about 70 per cent of Western Australian farms are narrow windrow burning.
“It will take a little way for things to level off and the fact is we all farm in different areas and have different farming systems and different priorities so I don't think one method in particular is going to suit everybody,” he said.
“Chaff carts find their niche in the mixed cropping, livestock operations where you are in a fairly long lay-off situation with two seasons of pasture and then a crop,” he said.
With world grain prices flatlining and increased affluence generating demand for meat, that is a segment not likely to diminish, he reckoned.
“We are reasonably confident that carts will maintain a niche and there’s also great appeal in the ‘one-operation’ control method,” Mr Lewis said.
“Livestock operations are not something we really envisaged when we started.”
Chaff dumps could also help diminish the need to hand feed stock “which is a big deal when you consider how many lupins and oats get fed to sheep in the dryland areas”, Mr Lewis said.
“A lot of the guys into controlled traffic are also looking carefully at weed seed management measures and chaff carts can be part of that.”
Mr Lewis said there were trends developing with a new 3.05 metre wheel track carts now available for controlled traffic croppers and some calls for automatic scheduled dumping.
Tecfarm has also developed a system to limit conveyor damage if the harvester jackknifes onto the tow-behind cart.
Mr Lewis said discounts on forward orders were one way to even out production schedules, but also a great way to hear of developments in weed seed control.