Harvest Master Bunchers Collect Crop Residue

Harvest Master Bunchers Collect Crop Residue COMBINES Miscellaneous 22-6-35 I sold and serviced Harvest Master "Bunchers" 25 years ago. It was a fantastic product and I still don't understand why farm equipment manufacturers don't incorporate the idea into a combine designed for cow-calf operators. The Bunchers were produced by Foster Manufacturing Co., Madras, Ore., until the late 1970's. They were pulled behind a combine to collect crop residue, which was blown into a trailing wagon. The residue was used for livestock feed. Bunchers were quite popular in our part of the country. The problem was that each time the company got them perfected, combine manufacturers changed de-signs. The company finally threw in the towel. We found at the time that crop residue makes an excellent feed. From grain yielding 9,000 lbs. per acre, you get approximately the same amount of residue for feed. Estimates are that there is enough crop residue wasted every year in the Midwest to feed every cow-calf operation in the U.S. for an entire winter. If I were still farming and had livestock, I'd be using a residue collection system. (Edwin H. Bredemeier, R.R. 1, Steinauer, Neb. 68441; ph 402 869-2334)

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