The Farming Ahead report will also highlight some good examples of how front technology is adapting to the changing crop requirements in Australia. Flexible or flex fronts have come to the fore with their ability to follow the contours of the ground, which makes them ideal for harvesting crops such as lentils.

And extendable table fronts can be used to harvest canola by direct heading the crop, or as it stands in the paddock, without the need to windrow. Kondinin Group researchers also had a look at a couple of Shelbourne Reynolds stripper fronts, which do not have a cutterbar as such.

The stripper fronts offer some benefits when harvesting cereals as they simply strip the head of the crop of its grain and hence reduce the amount of material that needs to be processed by the harvester. The stripper fronts have enjoyed a renewed interest from graingrowers looking to maximise the amount of stubble retention and they have now been picked up for distribution by John Deere dealerships Hutcheon and Pearce and Emmetts in Eastern Australia and Ratton and Slater in Western Australia.