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The Sterling Project |
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A decision was taken to develop a machine that would be ahead of the field... Design proposal for the Standen Sterling Self-Propelled Potato HarvesterThe background to the project was simple enough. As the sales of single row potato harvesters withered away it was obvious that what Standen required was a replacement machine, and this machine would have to harvest two rows of potatoes. This is where the market had gone, and Standen had to follow.
The easiest step would have been to look at what was on the market, and to design something very similar. Coming late to the market would have left Standen initially in a position of inferiority, but over time the product would have gained acceptance, and no doubt sales would have gradually built up.
However, rather than follow, a decision was taken to develop a machine that would be ahead of the field, in the hope that it would allow Standen to leap-frog the opposition. Having very little experience within the company it was decided to engage the services of someone who had headed his own potato harvesting manufacturing company, but having sold the business was in semi-retirement. Welcome to Stan Johnson.
His outline proposal was that the future lay with self-propelled machines, this not being an unreasonable conclusion following sales of over 100 such machines during the late 70's. Furthermore, the machine must be capable of harvesting very early potatoes, i.e. those grown as "new" potatoes, which are very small in size, and being extremely tender must be handled with extreme gentleness, to maincrop potatoes, which are of the traditional size for pre-packs, bakers, or as used by processors for chips and crisps.
The machine must have the option of being manned, with up to five pickers around the sorting table, or being unmanned, and have an option of an elevator feeding a trailer running alongside. It must also contain an automatic bagging system, an electric stitcher, a sack conveyor, a quality cab with air-conditioning, a powerful engine, hydrostatic transmission and an integral pre-topper.
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The resultant design was certainly unusual, featuring as it did a very short lifting web, which fed an elevating web that raised everything six feet or more to a series of mechanical separating devices, followed by a large sorting table.
In work this arrangement was fine for sandy, dry soils, but inefficient at cleaning a sample of potatoes in heavier soils, wet, or stony. As a consequence the 4 machines produced all ended up in the hands of growers on sandy soils, one such grower in the end buying 2 Sterlings.
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The gang operating the electric stitcher and the automatic weigher. |
Another gang on sack loading duties |
And a gang on the picking table. With the driver, that made ten people! |
The fruits of the team's labour. No other harvester could carry such a load! |
The Sterling project was eventually cancelled, and no further production took place. However, another prototype was built which was a trailed version of the Sterling, this incorporating one of the very first hydraulically powered axles built into a potato harvester.
The trailed machine worked very well in the field, and much hope was engendered within the company that it would produce the sort of results in terms of market penetration which the original Sterling model clearly had not.
Unfortunately there were two major drawbacks to the project, neither of which could be addressed without starting again. The first was that the machine was very heavy, and although it had the advantage of the powered axle, its dead weight would always mean it would be suspect in wet conditions. Secondly, and much more importantly, it was significantly more expensive than its competitors. Its projected cost was the same as the retail price of the market leader, even accounting for the value of the axle. There would have been very few customers prepared to pay the premium for an untried machine.
In the end the author of this history (Andy Bone) recommended cancellation of the trailed Sterling project, and sold the prototype machine to a local grower for £10,000, the deal being concluded after a number of glasses of whisky had been ingested. The machine worked satisfactorily for a number of years.
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Postscript |
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Two Sterlings Sold to CyprusSo what became of the self-propelled Sterlings? One was converted to a self-propelled sprayer, the owner removing all the harvesting gear and mounting a large sprayer body with spray booms, in which form it apparently worked successfully.
One has been lost to history, and the other two both found their way to Cyprus. Even then the story had a strange ending. The man who bought the two Sterlings was not a farmer, but had friends in Cyprus who grew early potatoes, and who he believed would welcome a present from him.
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