We've been growing lentils for about 20 years, they've been a really important part of our
system, they're very profitable, so yeah, they're something we've learnt to manage pretty
well. We had issues 15 years ago with a couple of
the headers we owned and I suppose we learnt to recognise the conditions when the headers
were building dust and then over time we've just sort of learnt to set up our headers
the best we can and modify them, but also to set up the paddock so if we have any sort
of incident the paddocks well set up so we can deal with it ourselves.
In setting up the paddock it's really simple, we have a firebreak around every paddock that
we farm, so that's a couple of metres strip, and normally we just aim to blow off the headers
before we go into the paddock so they're clean, and then we just harvest three laps around
the paddock which gives us a 50m area around the paddock that's got a very low fuel, so
it'll really hardly carry a fire. From there we just look really to harvest across the
wind so that the dust is predominantly blowing off the machines and then we harvest into
the wind, so if we happen to have any sort of smoulder the wind's always blowing towards
land that's harvested. We run a couple of chaser bins, so we've put
1,000L fire units on them. They're all set up so the operator can just start the pump
and just drive around. If we had a small smoulder or a fire they can just drive around it. We
make sure that they're operating in the area so they've got a good view of the whole paddock,
where the headers are, where the trucks are, where the trucks are loading. Beyond that
we've got a couple of ex-CFS fire trucks of our own, so we've certainly got plenty of
firepower in the paddock. On the harvesters themselves we put on a couple of extra water
extinguishers so we've got two powder and two water extinguishers, so we're pretty well
set up. I suppose the first thing to do is just work
out anywhere in the headers that's hot and perhaps anywhere that could be a potential
ignition source. It's obviously dust that causes these issues, so look to limit the
dust getting on the engine. So what we've done is we've fitted a material called Fiberfrax
to all the turbo, the manifold and the exhaust, and that basically insulates it and lowers
the temperature down to about a hundred degrees where it's a lot less likely to ignite. Beyond
that we've got ducting all over the engines, we just try and establish anywhere that there's
a bit of a low pressure zone on the engines, so we've got ducting and we've probably increased
the airflow over that manifold area by about three times. So yeah, just to try and identify
those areas and then modify it so it's as good as it can be.
We have these fire exit bombs on the headers and we've got about half a dozen just placed
strategically throughout the engine bay. So anywhere that we've heard or perhaps get chaff
collect that we think could be an issue we've got these bombs and basically if we had a
fire the fuse ignites and they put out powder and extinguish the fire.
We have a bit of a get-together pre-harvest, especially with our new employees and just
run through a bit of a strategy particularly around lentils just so the pickup bin drivers
now what they've got to do. If we had an incident basically one pickup bin is to deal with whatever's
going on in the paddock and the other pickup bin is to come over and watch the header and
assist the driver and generally our truck drivers then would go and get one of the fire
units. So we just have a strategy and we pretty much stick to it.
In crops with a high canopy sometimes the headers will start to build dust and these
are the conditions that we recognise. So in those conditions, depending on how bad it
is, we'll blow the headers off. That can be as often as every hour or as little as every
six hours. I think it's very important to work with your local dealer, have a look at
your machines, talk to other growers and then really work out what you're going to do with
your machines and work with a local dealer to get it done early. So you just make your
machines the best they can be. Look, lentils are a very important part of
our rotation and they're something that we must just learn to manage this risk or perhaps
if we don't we're at risk of being legislated to manage it. So yeah, just be proactive and
get it done and enjoy growing lentils.