Aerow's second Prototype (Mach II)

The innovation behind the Aerow is a very simple and robust design that solves multiple problems. The Aerow has a uniquely designed rotor. The rotor contains a very specific innovative combination of teeth and belting. The belting protects the spring teeth from tangling with crop material. The teeth lift the crop off the ground, but the belting pushes it over the rotor and gently tosses the crop material back over. The result is that the rotor can handle very heavy or light crops and allows for very fast travel speeds. 

The next exciting innovation in the Aerow is the frame structure that allows for steering tires to change the angle of the rotor relative to the direction of travel. Angling the rotor has been found to allow the operator to adapt to a wide range of field conditions and crop types. More aggressive or more gentle handling is made possible with this feature. We also found in the testing that the windrow could be shifted so it landed slightly beside its original spot. Often there is a lot of moisture trapped under a swath - so shifting is very beneficial.

We also found that angling allows the operator to either spread out the swath or narrow it up. If the swath is already too wide, fluffing it up can make it hard to feed into a baler pickup, which can be quite narrow. Angling in combination with a series of shrouds behind the rotor gave us the ability to really create ideal outcomes.  

There are multiple benefits and multiple applications. The Aerow can be used in both hay crops and grain crops, basically anything that is swathed. The main benefit is increasing the harvest window by improving drying. The harvest window is also improved by being able to feed the swath into your baler, combine or other harvester with less resistance, lump issues or chances of plugging. Harvesting faster and harvesting for a longer period each day can have a dramatic effect on getting your crop off with the highest quality and before winter.

Swathing is making a comeback. In recent years, straight combining has been the main strategy for many farmers in the grain industry. However, the harvest window is changing, crop staging can be variable, we are seeing the impact of cool, wet falls and early snowfall risk is an issue. The other threat to straight cutting is the banning of glyphosate as a pre-harvest treatment on many crops. Herbicide desiccation is less and less acceptable and if your crop is uneven or has weed growth, the only way to get it to dry out is to swath. 

Often many farmers see swathing as a way to create more risk to the crop. Once swathed, if it rains, there is a chance for sprouting and heavy swaths are tougher to dry out. The Aerow changes that. If you know you can swath your crop earlier and get the crop desiccated, rain risk is mitigated by the ability to re-fluff the swaths. 

We haven’t yet tested the Aerow on all crops. We know it works very well on hay crops and cereals. Oilseeds, pulses and specialty crops that are more susceptible to shattering losses need further testing. The ability to adjust rotor speed ground speed and angle adjustments, makes it very promising to achieve desired outcomes. What we have seen is that when a crop is very wet in the swath, shatter risk is lowered. We have processed very wet swaths after rainfall events and found that the Aerow can effortlessly pickup and re-fluff the swaths and allow the crop to dry in a much shorter timeframe. 

We are currently setting up manufacturing and have finished and delivered our first-generation version of the Aerow this summer for thorough testing in north western saskatchewan. Pricing and distribution details will be released as soon as they are in place.