Assist the Ricegrowers' Association with a campaign to reduce dockage. Produce appropriate reports to assist with this campaign. Assess depot trash sampling and removal technologies. The project was set up in anticipation that the 1997 harvest was likely to set new records. But there was a large shortfall in storage space for a bumper crop.
Trash takes up valuable space and causes problems with handling, storage and quality.
There were discernible differences in trash levels between brands. Older header models generally produced lower trash levels than the latest models of the same brand. This would occupy space exceeding 100,000 tonnes of paddy in a season with a large shortfall of storage space for the 1.38 million tonne bumper crop. Harvester performance and evaluations were carried out in conjunction with these exercises. Average age of rice headers from 84 participants survey returns was 10 years.