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Description
The combine harvester is a complex piece of modern machinery that is now of crucial importance to the cereal farmer. He relies absolutely upon the machine to bring his crop in quickly at precisely ...the right time. But there's a price to pay, not just the capital cost of the machine (£20,000), but also in terms of changes to the entire farming system. Dr. Dick Morris presents this film, which begins with what is now an increasingly rare sight: harvesting with a tractor driven binder. Within some 20 years the combine has made this obsolete, and the film looks in part at the technical development and in part at the overall results. The film begins with a brief description of the workings of the combine harvester by Peter Fuhr of Massey-Ferguson, and we see the modern harvesting process. There is also a chance to glimpse the approach that modern farmers bring to the job, in a sequence where we listen in to a sales pitch - cum - technical appraisal of the latest model. But the major story in the film concerns the waste-product of harvesting, straw. As the film explains, the older farming system involved threshing the wheat (i.e. separating the grain from the straw) in machinery away from the field: the straw was thus gathered together, and was then used to feed animals and for winter bedding. The product of this was manure, which could be spread back on the land, thus completing the nutrient cycle. The combine has changed all this in several ways the straw is now left behind the machine on the field, aid since farmers with combines for the most part no longer keep animals, it is uneconomic to collect the straw off the field. Yet it cannot be left to rot, because this will be to the detriment of the following crops; the solution adapted by most farmers is to burn the straw which is a waste of a natural resource. The film begins with an introduction for T101 students by John Naughton.
The combine harvester is a complex piece of modern machinery that is now of crucial importance to the cereal farmer. He relies absolutely upon the machine to bring his crop in quickly at precisely ...the right time. But there's a price to pay, not just the capital cost of the machine (£20,000), but also in terms of changes to the entire farming system. Dr. Dick Morris presents this film, which begins with what is now an increasingly rare sight: harvesting with a tractor driven binder. Within some 20 years the combine has made this obsolete, and the film looks in part at the technical development and in part at the overall results. The film begins with a brief description of the workings of the combine harvester by Peter Fuhr of Massey-Ferguson, and we see the modern harvesting process. There is also a chance to glimpse the approach that modern farmers bring to the job, in a sequence where we listen in to a sales pitch - cum - technical appraisal of the latest model. But the major story in the film concerns the waste-product of harvesting, straw. As the film explains, the older farming system involved threshing the wheat (i.e. separating the grain from the straw) in machinery away from the field: the straw was thus gathered together, and was then used to feed animals and for winter bedding. The product of this was manure, which could be spread back on the land, thus completing the nutrient cycle. The combine has changed all this in several ways the straw is now left behind the machine on the field, aid since farmers with combines for the most part no longer keep animals, it is uneconomic to collect the straw off the field. Yet it cannot be left to rot, because this will be to the detriment of the following crops; the solution adapted by most farmers is to burn the straw which is a waste of a natural resource. The film begins with an introduction for T101 students by John Naughton.
| Module code and title: | T101, Living with technology: a foundation course |
|---|---|
| Item code: | T101; 13; 1982 |
| First transmission date: | 24-07-1982 |
| Published: | 1982 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:25:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Colin Robinson |
| Contributors: | Dick Morris; John Naughton |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Combine harvester; Costs; Mechanics; Waste straw |
| Master spool number: | HOU4047 |
| Production number: | FOUT141D |
| Videofinder number: | 2208 |
| Available to public: | no |
