Older Dewulf self-propelled machines are still running, but this 22-year-old is believed to be the most northern of all the Belgian firm’s harvesters worldwide. Located 70km south of the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland, this two-row R3000S belongs to Juha Jankkila, who bought it through Finnish Dewulf dealer Avagro in 2014.
Powered by a 219hp Deutz BF 6M 1013C engine, the 10.6t machine lifts over 40ha a season of a variety called Puikula. With a growing season of just 80-90 days, the floury potato has a strong flavour due to the near-continuous summer daylight in Lapland.
Fitted with three sieving conveyors and two hedgehog belts and a 4.5t bunker, the R3000S was made from 1994 to 1999. Seventy machines were produced. Dewulf first introduced the first three-wheeled sieving harvester in 1989. Today, 28 years later, the Belgian firm builds around 50 machines a year of the fifth-generation version – the R3060.
