Harvesters For Sale in Australia

About Harvesters

Mechanical harvesters date back to the 1800s and are used the world over to bring in crops quickly and efficiently. Technological and design advancements introduced throughout the ensuing 200-plus years have dramatically reduced the time and labor required to accomplish this crucial task, and modern combines are the culmination of all of this progress, as they allow growers to accomplish the processes of cutting, threshing, and winnowing crops using a single machine. Recent advancements have included the use of continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), data-gathering and monitoring sensors and systems, camera systems, hillside leveling technologies, crop-processing refinements, and precision ag features that automate steering and other aspects of combine operation.

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CLAAS LEXION 8700 TERRA TRAC Combine Harvester

Harvester History

Cyrus McCormick patented a mechanical reaper in 1834, and Hiram Moore patented the first combine in 1835. In 1891, William J. Conroy received a patent for his forage harvester. These machines and others helped demonstrate the immense potential that lay in automating what had been a time-consuming, labor-intensive process for a very long time. Then in 1937, Massey-Harris Chief Engineer Thomas Carroll and his team designed the Massey-Harris No. 20, thought by many to have been the first commercially viable self-propelled combine. A number of leading agricultural machinery brands including Case IH, CLAAS, Gleaner, John Deere, Massey-Harris descendant Massey Ferguson, New Holland, and others have been hard at work refining the combine ever since.

Recent advancements have increasingly leaned on digital technology to improve what was once solely a mechanical process. Today’s combines have sophisticated onboard computers that allow them to optimize harvesting speeds based on terrain and crop conditions, as well as GPS guidance technologies that automate some of the most repetitive and physically demanding components of harvester operation, making combines ever more efficient and freeing operators to focus on the big picture.

Harvester Varieties

The main Harvesters category on TractorHouse.com.au is a wide-ranging one that’s organised into Combines, Cotton Pickers & Strippers, Forage Harvesters (Self-propelled and Pull-type), Headers (Platform, Row Crop, and Forage), and Other Harvesters subcategories. In addition, Forage Headers are further split into Row Crop, Rotary, and Windrow sub-subcategories.

Harvester Heads

Platform headers feature a cutter bar, a revolving wheel, and an auger or draper to feed the crop into the combine for processing. Row crop headers function similarly but use points, or snouts, positioned between rows of corn, cotton, rice, sunflowers, or other crops. Forage headers, meanwhile, include row crop, rotary, and windrow styles, and are used to harvest grasses, maize, and other forage plants for processing into silage or haylage.

Find The Right Harvester

TractorHouse.com.au offers a big selection of new and used harvesters for sale, including machines from leading manufacturers such as Case IH, CLAAS, Gleaner, John Deere, MacDon, Massey Ferguson, New Holland, and others.