 |
Standen leapt ahead of the competition when it decided to develop a three rowThe first part of the system was the separate topper, seen here placing 3 rows of tops into one windrow. This would be collected separately, or direct fed to animals, usually sheep. |
History of Standen 3 Row Sugar Beet Harvesters Standen leapt ahead of the competition when it decided to develop a 3-row harvesting system. As has already been noted, efforts to produce an economically viable two row harvester had failed, but the pressure for a machine capable of out-performing the single row tankers was still very much on the agenda.
But what?
Remembering that most tractors were limited to 60 HP, and many were smaller, there was no point in designing a 3-row tanker machine. It would quite simply have been too heavy to pull. Equally, a 3-row design which filled a trailer running alongside, topping, lifting, cleaning and loading the beet, would also have been too much for the tractor's power output.
The pundits all laughed when Peter Standen's team came up with their solution, which was to split the operation into two separate sections, using two tractors, the first to pull a three row topper, the second to pull the lifter and loader section. Why, that would mean as many as five tractors and their drivers to operate the system; one each for the two operating machines, and three to keep the system fed with trailers. Who had ever heard of such a daft idea?
Nonetheless the company pressed ahead, calling the system the Multibeet.
|
The new 3-row system was a rip-roaring success |
 |
It was a rip-roaring success, and within a very short time the majority of the larger UK growers had swapped their single row machines for new Standen Multibeets.
To make the system even more attractive the first topping section was able to save the tops of the beet, by either laying the tops in a windrow, or by elevating them into a trailer (which meant perhaps another two or even three trailers in the system).
No one minded. So much land could be cleared in a day, ten acres being easily achievable, that growers could pick and choose the time to harvest, and allocate staff accordingly.
|
|
|
|
The Lifter-Loader dug the 3-rows of topped sugar beet, and after cleaning them elevated them to an accompanying trailer. |
|
The Blower topper was very popular with growers who wished to save the tops off the field. This version of the standard topper chopped up the tops and blew them into a trailer. They would then be ensiled. |
The Flail Topper on the other hand was used by growers who had no use for the tops. It chopped up the tops and left them beneath the machine. They would then be ploughed in as green fertilizer. |
Standen Turbobeet - A One Man System |
|
|
The Turbobeet incorporated a front-mounted Turbo-topper, which defoliated the beet, spreading the top to one side. This allowed one stage operation, a great step forward. In due course the average tractor horse-power increased to around 75HP, and at this point it was practicable to consider the joining together of the two operating parts of the system into one unit. So in 1979 Standen introduced the Turbobeet, which comprised a topper mounted on the front of the tractor, and the lifter / loader on the back. This was again an enormous success, since it saved a man and a tractor. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
 |
Standen Sceptre - One Man Operated, More Cleaning |
The Sceptre was a completely new harvester with a number of novel features. Whilst the Turbobeet met the needs of most sugar beet growers, there were those who farmed on heavy land where the Turbobeet's simple cleaning system could not produce the required quality of sample in the trailer. For such growers, who had tended to stick with the single row Cyclone, Standen developed the Sceptre.
This was still a 3-row harvester, fitted with the same front-mounted topper as the Turbobeet, but built into its heart was a novel cleaning system developed by the engineers at the Silsoe research institute near Bedford.
|
|
| |
The Sceptre cleaner unit dismounted. The longitudinal bars on each of the rollers lie in angled slots, and are forced outwards when the rollers rotate under centrifugal action. |
A typical load of crop passing onto the cleaner. It is full of mud, stones and trash. All of it will vanish through the cleaner to leave a clean sample for the trailer. |
Standen Stalwart - Self-Propelled 3-Row |
|
|
The harvester had a 3-tonne tank To compliment the Sceptre, Standen developed a self-propelled version, which was called the Stalwart.
This go-anywhere harvester used a 75hp Ford tractor skid unit as its power source, but was not as popular as hoped. Less than ten were made in total.
|
|
|
| |
During the 1980's the last 3-row model was introduced, this being in fact a 3-row version of what was really a 4-row harvester, the Spectrum. This model is therefore described in the 4-row chapter. Equally there was a 3-row version of the Thyregod tanker, this being introduced to the market in the 1990's. With the loss of the Thryegod franchise this concluded Standen's involvement in what had, at one time, been by far and away the largest sector of the British sugar beet harvester market.
It would be fair to say that during the 1960's Standen prospered because of its involvement in single row harvesters, and through the 70's and into the early 80's that prosperity continued because of the company's dominance of the 3-row sector. But as with all things time moves on, and the next chapter therefore deals with the 4-row harvesters, and follows this with the 6-row.
|
|
|
|
Home
Potato
