Our biomass collections systems can collect anything harvested with a combine, this is Soybean chaff. The type and amount are dependent on how the combine is set according to desired collection rate and sustainability.
FarmMax partners have been collecting corn cobs and stover since 1999. Our current system has been in use on our farms since 2009. There are benefits to cob removal that should be explored in depth.
Our team at FarmMax has worked in hemp since 2017. Hemp is an under appreciated and under utilized crop that has thousands of potential benefits including food, textiles, composites, building materials, graphite and medicines, as well as biochemicals.
Since 1999, Ty and Jay Stukenholtz have been designing specialized harvesting equipment for difficult to capture crop material. Graduates of the University of Nebraska in Agricultural Engineering, they have designed harvesting equipment for one of the largest specialized seed companies in the US that produces hundreds of varieties of wildflowers and native grasses, along with row crops.
As engineers and farmers, we understand the challenges of production level agriculture, the enormous resources, manpower, machinery and inputs necessary to do the job. Our expertise lies in our ability to make more than one thing possible. Our patented system is designed to make grain harvesting and biomass collection happen simultaneously. With The Interceptor, a farmer can do both, and provide material for the growing need for clean, quality biomass for the US bioeconomy. Farmers need sustainable options for biomass harvesting for the success of this industry.
The Interceptor was designed with the needs of farmers in mind. Any farmer will say that harvest is a challenging time of year, time is of the essence and the priority is getting your valuable grain out of the field. The Interceptor is designed for versatility. Farmers can switch from one commodity and back again in a few easy steps, and by utilizing the combine as it was intended we eliminate the added ancillary expenses for post-harvest collection such as manpower, fuel and post-harvest specific equipment.
The Interceptor is designed as a bolt-on attachment that enables farmers to utilize a regular rotary combine to separate and collect a desired portion of the plant material with normal grain harvest without modifications that affect the combine's resale value. It can be removed with ease so producers can harvest other crops without biomass collection. In hemp, The Interceptor can harvest 7500 to 15,000 pounds of flower, alongside grain, per hour depending on harvest conditions. The Interceptor can also be used to collect weed seed and chaff in other crops thereby reducing herbicide usage.
The Interceptor is currently designed to attach to John Deere S Series model combines from 2016 to 2021.
The mission has always been the same: Make biomass harvesting easier, faster and more efficient for farmers, saving them money, time and expensive manpower while increasing farm revenue. We want to make Value-Added Biomass Collection desirable and sustainable to increase biomass usage in the US.
In the past corn was harvested in the ear, so there were plenty of cobs on the farm, which had many uses from cattle feeding to heating. We got our start hauling cobs to Great Lakes chemicals for furfural production. There is no furfural production in the US anymore. It's all imported. Why? Because the advent of the rotary combine left the cobs in the field. Seed corn is the only source for cobs...until now.
Our expertise goes beyond collection to storage, transportation and handling.
Developed in 2018, our Multi-Crop Harvesting system can be utilized in a variety of crops.
Flower only is blown into the wagon. CBD extraction is cleaner and more efficient. The covered dump wagon ensures trichomes do not escape with residual dust during harvesting. Fiber is left standing for field retting.
Our harvesting methods ensure cleaner biomass.
We have the expertise to design equipment tailored to specific needs.