By P.J. GRIEKSPOOR
At a small booth in the next-to-last row of the outdoor exhibits at this year’s 3i Show in Dodge City, a relatively new company, AYGlobal, conducted perhaps the quietest North American launch of a new product ever.
AYGlobal owners Yuriy and Alex Lehan are proud to say that they are now American citizens. They came to America from Ukraine 10 years ago to “find the American dream,” and became citizens in 2008. Their company is based in Anoka, Minn.
The product they were launching was the Almaz grain separating machine, which was engineered in Germany and is manufactured in three factories: one in Germany, one in Ukraine and one in Russia. They have obtained a U.S. patent for the machine.
Key Points
• A product new to North America is quietly launched at 3i Show.
• Owners of the distributorship have exclusive North American rights.
• The system uses airflow and specific gravity, and contains no screens.
The Lehans brought their smallest model, the MC-4/2, because it is the easiest to transport.
Five successively larger models range in size from a 10-ton-per-hour cleaning capacity up to 100 tons per hour, with the bigger machines designed for permanent installation on large farming operations or in seed sales businesses.
The Almaz cleans, separates and grades grains from tiny canola and sesame seeds all the way to soy or pinto beans. It works by airflow and specific gravity to separate heavier kernels from lighter ones, and from broken, shriveled kernels or chaff.
The mechanism can be calibrated to separate as many as seven weights, but most wheat farmers use four settings: one to eliminate heavy trash such as small rocks, one to get the heaviest berries suitable for saving for seed, one to separate out milling-quality grain, and one for shriveled or broken kernels and chaff.
Because of its unique engineering, the machine requires none of the screens so familiar to the typical U.S. seed cleaning operation. There are no screens to clean, change, repair or replace. There are also no screen scratches or damage to grain.
The Almaz has been used in Germany for 11 years.
“There are agronomic studies in Germany to show that farmers separating seed wheat from milling-quality wheat with this system have been able to improve crop yields by as much as 30% over planting standard screen-cleaned wheat,” said Bill Haverstock, who is handling marketing for AYGlobal.
In America, AYGlobal sees wheat farmers as its primary customers, because they are more likely to save their own seed. But, the company said, larger seed business will find the Almaz to be desirable for its extremely low maintenance requirement and minimal energy consumption.
This article published in the September, 2012 edition of KANSAS FARMER.
All rights reserved. Copyright Farm Progress Cos. 2012.