Dutch John Deere dealer Groenoord has developed a trailer to collect hemp leaves harvested by the modified John Deere Double Cut combine.

But before going into detail, a bit of the background. Developed in conjunction with Dutch grower HempFlax, the prototype Double Cut was in the field autumn 2014, and the technical details of the first commercial version of the novel three-in-one combine, which can harvest hemp stalks, seeds and top flowers in a single operation, featured in our the January 2017 issue.

To briefly recap, the combine’s standard 4.5m cereal header is elevated to a new high-rise position, the space vacated by it filled with a six-row John Deere 445 maize chopper.

The maize header cuts the hemp stalks about 15cm from the ground, after which the material is fed through a modified chopping drum. Comprising one single fixed and one variable knife, stalks chopped into lengths of 60cm drop to the ground behind the combine’s front wheels.

The top 30cm-50cm of the plants are tackled by the elevated 4.5m 616R header. Known as the DC4510 (4.5m Series 1), it works at a maximum cutting height of 4.6m.

On earlier models, this material was blasted into a trailer through the discharge spout and blower gleaned from a John Deere SPFH. Called the TFB 10 (Top Flower Blower), this solution is still handy in small fields.

The new bit this season is at the rear of the T660i in the field this harvest is where top flowers/leaves passes over the straw walkers and onto a conveyor from where it is elevated to the 3.5t capacity trailer towed behind the combine.

Called the TFT 10 (Top Flower Trailer), and one of three units made so far, the trailer is based on a modified Dutch-made Schuitemaker feeding wagon. The top leaves generally yield around 3.0t-3.5t/ha and depending on the yield it takes 30-60mins to fill the trailer.

When the front of the trailer is filled with 1.0t-1.5t of material, the operator activates the trailer’s chain-driven slatted floor to push the heap to the rear. This is usually done twice to completely fill the trailer.

The rear-mounted camera not only assists the operator when reversing up to the container at the headland, but also when lowering the top of the unloading conveyor. It takes 4-5mins for the hydraulically-operated floor to unload the contents.

Available on W and T-Series walker machines (2016+ models), as a very rough guide the hemp module to covert one to a Double Cut model costs approx. €140,000. The optional TFB10 costs around €40,000. The price of the trailer has not yet been confirmed.

Three of the 10 Double Cut combines made so far were for Hemp Flax, which in addition to 1,300ha of the crop near company HQ at Oude Pekela in the north of the country, also has 700ha of land (500ha hemp) in Romania.

Most of the other machines work in the USA, where the hemp area totals around 100,000ha, although interest in the novel hemp harvesting technique is growing in Eastern Europe.

Industrial hemp has thousands of different uses. Hemp fibres can be turned into nearly anything, including construction and insulation materials and in industrial applications such as the automotive, furniture, paper and textile industry.

The valuable CBD (cannabidiol) extracted from the top parts of the hemp plants are primarily used in protein powders, oils and seeds, but can also be found in bread, lubricants, fuel, paint and even margarine.