Snowblower Doubles As Grain Mover

Snowblower Doubles As Grain Mover SNOWBLOWERS Snowblowers 26-6-3 William Coates doesn't wait for snow to fall to put his tractor-mounted snowblower to work. He gets busy as soon as grain harvest starts, blowing grain from the edge of piles on the ground to augers. "It's fast and makes it possible for me to load a semi all by myself," says Coates. "A bigger auger could probably move more, but, I can load 300 bushels in 10 minutes with my 8-inch auger." Coates started using the snowblower to get away from using a drag auger, which often scrapes the ground and pulled up dirt. Skid plates under the snowblower allow him to slowly back into the pile and pick up only grain. The dual stage blower has a cross auger and an impeller with a directional chute that can be focused across a 180_ arc. Coates sets the auger up near the edge of a pile and blows a small pile around the auger intake. The pile then acts like a sump and remaining grain is directed into it. So far, he has used the blower on oats, barley, durum and spring wheat, but not on lentils or peas. "It is faster than a grain vac and probably more gentle because it isn't moving the kernels as fast," says Coates. "The impeller doesn't seem to damage the grain at all." The large snowblower worked so well that Coates started using a small snowblower for cleanup. "Now we clean up without shoveling a single bushel," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, William Coates, Box 58, Pense, Sask., Canada SOG 3WO (ph 306 345-2849).

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