China's Corn Mechanization Harvesting Enters the "Dedicated Machine" Era

The mechanized harvest of corn is a “sweet dream” for Chinese farmers. In order to realize this dream, our country’s agricultural machinery people have fought for more than 40 years. The agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy that began in 2004 has accelerated the realization of this dream. In 2007, China’s corn machine The yield exceeded 10%, and after three years of hard work, the yield of corn in China reached 17% in 2009. In 2010, the national and local agricultural extension departments still adopted corn harvesting machines as the key tilt-subsidized products. In some places, it was even stipulated that other products would not be allowed to subsidize without completing the corn harvester subsidies. According to statistics, from January to June, domestic companies achieved sales of 26,000 corn harvesters, slightly over the same period of last year, from the product structure analysis, including the bearer machine, three lines of self-propelled, four lines of self-propelled, and scion wheat and corn. Machines and grain direct-feeding wheat and corn machines are used. In addition, there are still some corn machine harvesting stations. At present, it is difficult to distinguish clearly the proportion structure of various models in the 26,000 units, especially the grain direct delivery model. Currently, there are still a large number of wheat machine sets to make up for corn machines, so it is difficult to define their true identities, but from the Luoyang Zhongshou, Fucheng Boyuan, Hengtai, Hengyuntong, and other major companies in the first half of the loading situation and the latter two The monthly production plan statistics and analysis found that almost every manufacturer has expanded the loading capacity of corn-specific machines since the beginning of this year, while the installation and marketing investment of dual-purpose machines have been reduced. In addition, from the actual sales situation in the market, In the first half of the year, the sales volume of dual-use machines fell by more than 50%. From the perspective of the market outcome indicators and the adjustments made by various manufacturers, the momentum of dual-use machines will soon pass, and the inflection point of special-purpose machines has already been highlighted. The rice harvester will run into the “dedicated machine” era.

Specialization is the inevitable development of agricultural mechanization. In the three major crops, wheat and rice plants have similar traits and similar harvesting methods, while maize is the opposite. Maize plants are tall and stout, and the middle and upper parts of the plants are crusted, and the fruits are deeply buried in the molt. Among them, the harvesting method is complex and difficult, and the technical content and precision of the machine are more demanding. Therefore, from the perspective of the crop itself, the corn harvester is suitable for harvesting operations using specialized harvesting machinery, but in the early stages of modernization in China, The farmers' friends have limited spending power. Because the wheat-maize dual-use machine has a good price/performance ratio, it has been sought after by many users in the past few years. However, as the country continues to invest in rural areas and agriculture, and various preferential agricultural policies, rural areas The economy has developed rapidly. Farmers' income has been increasing year by year. Farmers' purchasing power has also been increasing. Coupled with the tilted support from the State's subsidy policy, the actual selling price of corn-specific machines has been greatly reduced and the purchase threshold has been reduced. Rising will become inevitable. In addition, from the history of the development of wheat and rice, two types of machine We have experienced towed, knapsack, type, etc. Concurrently stage of development, but in the end two types of crops have achieved specialization harvest, rice and whole forming machine feeding and semi-feeding two completely different professional harvesting methods. Currently, corn machines have experienced traction, backpacking, and dual-use, and now the development of domestic corn special machines has begun to take shape. Under the premise of ensuring the purchasing power of users, corn-specific machines will eventually replace backpacks and commuters. Become the mainstream product of the market, so the harvest of corn mechanization will enter the era of specialization harvest.

The special machine product family has already formed the agricultural machinery exhibition to be able to demonstrate the development trend of the agricultural machinery market in the later period. From 2009 and the first half of this year, it can be seen from various agricultural machinery exhibitions held in various countries and regions. Compared with previous years, dedicated machines at various exhibitions have become the protagonists in the past. The former “red populace” bears the machine and wheat and corn. The dual-use machine has been out of the scenery, especially the bearer, and it has been very difficult to capture the figure in some national-level exhibitions. Shandong Dafeng, Guofeng, Juming and other major manufacturers of loaders have also adjusted the product direction and have exhibited. The new type of special corn harvester products, from the product spectrum of various companies, currently has a full range of small and medium-sized corn harvesters from 1 line to 6 lines, in order to improve the adaptability, some companies also introduced 5 The corn special harvesting machines with multiple sets of picking rollers, such as channels, and 8 channels, among these products, the three-row and four-row machines are the kingpin models in the domestic harvester industry due to their high harvesting efficiency and stable technology. Four rows of corn special machines are produced by nearly 10 companies, but only Luoyang Zhongshou and Beijing Hengyuntong can form mass sales. The two companies achieved large-scale production and mass sales as early as 2008. The 4-row crane has high harvesting efficiency, but due to its large size, it is suitable for large-scale land operations and has high requirements for roads. Therefore, its scope of use is limited to the Northeast, Xinjiang, and large-scale farms and agricultural reclamation systems. The enterprises that are favored by the enterprises are suitable for the promotion and use of the models in the Mainland. The first enterprise in the country that has first entered the 3-row line is Boyuan, which is also the first company in China to achieve large-scale production and sales of 3-line machines. Currently, it owns The three lines of special collection technology have spread, and some powerful harvesting machine companies including Futian recently have developed or have already launched similar models, so it is expected that the next hot spot of the corn harvester will most likely shift to three lines. Special machine. In addition, in recent years, the four-line corn special machine in the northeast region has developed rapidly, and the phenomenon of unsalable sales has appeared in the market. Although the corn market in the Mainland market has also achieved rapid development, the amount of dedicated machines is basically zero, and there is a huge market demand. Several major manufacturers will focus on the mainland market, especially the corn machine market in the Huang-Huai-Hai region.

Special machine operation advantages The wheat and corn machine modified by the No. 2 wheat harvester has greatly limited the current configuration of the corn harvesting device in terms of power, transmission and overall layout. In addition, the wheat and corn harvesting power requirements The inconsistency will result in wastage of large horsepower carts and power. In actual use, the interchange of wheat harvesters and corn harvesters is not an easy task. It is not professional maintenance personnel's ability to install and debug them in place. It can be said that the wheat and corn harvesters are innate. The design flaws determine its ultimate fate.

Judging from the results of operations, according to the follow-up investigations in recent years, the corn harvester has stable performance, high harvesting efficiency, low entrainment and loss rate, and high speed. Not only has it been loved by the operators, but it has also been favored by users. During the harvest season, growers prefer to call their dedicated machines for their operations.

Factors Affecting the Development of Special Machines Although corn harvesting machinery will eventually be unified from the current coexistence of various models to special machine products, this development is only a matter of time. However, from the current market situation, there are still many factors that constrain corn. The development of special purpose machines, in which the low return is the most important factor, from the perspective of tracking users' operating income in the past two years, in addition to Shandong Province and Heilongjiang Province, the corn harvesting market in other regions has not yet developed, and the corn harvesting machine as a whole There is a phenomenon of insufficient food, and the income of operators is also low. According to statistics, in 2009, the general revenue of 3-row special-purpose machines was 2-2.5 million yuan, and that of 4-row machines was 3.5-40,000 yuan. The recovery period of purchases was close to 7 years. Phenomenon also exists in other models. Therefore, the driver must consider the issue of income before buying. If the income is low, the opportunity cost is too high, which may dampen the incentive for the purchase of the hand.

In the second half of this year, 5.5 billion yuan of state supplemented funds was added to the 600 million that had not been implemented in the first half of the year. A total of 6.1 billion yuan of state supplement projects were to be implemented. According to the latest news from the Ministry of Agriculture, the government still implemented the second batch of national supplement projects in the second half of the year. Maize harvesting machinery will be heavily subsidized. After October, it is the operation period of the corn harvester. Under the condition that the country’s second batch of agricultural machinery purchase subsidy funds can be delivered on schedule, it is expected that in August and September, the sales peak of the corn harvester will usher in, and corn will still be available in all regions. The special-purpose harvester is the focus of the subsidy. It is estimated that the annual sales volume of corn harvesters will exceed 7,000 units, including 4,000 special-purpose harvesters for three lines and 3,000 special-purpose harvesters for four-line harvesters, while the wheat and corn dual-purpose machines will only sporadically occur in the second half of the year. The annual sales volume will be reduced from 20,000 units last year to about 5,000 units. It can be said that the era of wheat and corn dual-purpose corn harvesters is over. Before the revolutionary technology to solve the existing defects, the wheat and corn dual-purpose harvester Withdrawing from the corn harvester market will be historically inevitable, and the special purpose machine will usher in the golden period of development.