We have approached the subject of Bizon combine harvesters many times from different angles. We have described their history, prices, modifications and parameters of individual models. This time it is time for a few words about a rather unknown episode in the history of Polish combine harvesters. Leveling of the threshing system, such as the titular "hillmaster" by John Deere, is still the technology of the future for many farmers, and yet it turns out that something similar was already working in Polish fields several decades ago.
Before the Bisons left for Polish fields
The history of agricultural machinery production in Płock dates back to 1870, when Moses Sarna began producing ploughs and forage harvesters, as part of the expansion of his previous business focused solely on repairing machinery from other manufacturers. At that time, the factory employed several dozen people and was located almost in today's city center, just 400 meters from the market square.
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Over the next few years, the local market saw dynamic competition in the form of the Nitkowski, Born i Spółka company and Paweł Urbański's agricultural machinery and tool repair shop. The aforementioned companies operated on the local market in parallel, producing agricultural machinery and spare parts, as well as offering servicing of locomobiles, sawmill and distillery machines. More serious changes were brought about only by the outbreak of World War II, when the Płock plants were nationalized and united within Landmaschinen Fabrik Plock Maschinen-Industrie, at the same time adapting their business profile to the needs of the war.
After the war ended, in June 1945, on the basis of the above companies, Płockie Zakłady Maszynowe was established, where the production of agricultural machines and equipment in the form of winnowers, threshers, chopper and grinders began. By decision of the Minister of Industry and Trade on September 15, 1948, the plants were renamed the Harvesting Machinery Factory, which in 1953 was named after Marcel Nowotka. In the same year, construction of a new headquarters began, at an address well-known to many farmers on Otolińska Street, where the CNH factory operates to this day.
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The production of harvesting machines at FMŻ began in 1948, when the first series of reapers was created, which were to initiate the mechanization of harvesting work in post-war Poland. However, for the dynamic development of agriculture, a reaper and a thresher were not enough, which is why on April 14, 1954, the first Polish combine harvester left the gates of the Płock factory – ŻMS-4, manufactured under a Soviet license. The machine was officially presented during the May Day parade, and during field tests, the designers themselves sat behind the wheel. By 1959, 1,473 units had been produced.
Then, in 1955, the design office of the Marcel Nowotka Harvesting Machine Factory in Płock, under the management of engineer Tadeusz Michalski, began work on a completely new combine harvester. The first model of the new Vistula series, the KZB-3A, was a modern machine by the standards of the late 1950s. Interestingly, these combines were powered not only by S53 engines from Starachowice, but also by British Perkins and their licensed counterparts from Yugoslavia, or Spanish Barreiros units.
The origins of the legendary Bisons
The next milestone in the development of the Harvesting Machinery Factory came when, by resolution of the Council of Ministers of March 10, 1970, a decision was made to launch the production of Bizon combine harvesters, on which the FMŻ team had been working for several years. The first models of the new series of harvesting machines were the Bizon Z040 and Z050 Super. Below we will focus on the latter.
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The Bizon Z050 entered production in 1972. It was equipped, like the smaller Z040, with a 105 HP SW400 engine, obtained under a license agreement with the British company Leyland in 1966. Theoretically, it was twice as efficient as the Vistula, reaching 2 ha/hour. Interestingly, according to the designers, it could work with headers with a working width of up to 5.2 m. Today, this seems absurd, although it should be remembered that we are talking about the times when a wheat yield of 3 t/ha was considered very good, and even average yields "with three in front" were achieved almost exclusively in experiments.
In 1976, Bizon Z050, according to the publication "Technical and operational data of agricultural machines and tractors", cost 550 thousand zlotys. According to data from the Central Statistical Office, wheat was purchased at that time for an average of 5250 PLN/t, rye for about 4400 PLN/t, barley for 4900 PLN/t, and oats for about 4150 PLN/t. Potatoes were sold for an average of 2150 PLN/t, and sugar beets for 1100 PLN/t. Beef livestock was purchased for an average of 23.80 PLN/kg, veal for about 27.10 PLN/kg, and pork for an average of 34.30 PLN/kg. The average purchase price of milk in 1976 was about 4.62 PLN/l, and chicken eggs for 2.29 PLN/pc.
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Hence, the conclusion is that the new Bizon Z050 was worth about 106 tons of wheat, 125 tons of rye, 112 tons of barley or 133 tons of oats. Today, this seems like an incredible price for a new combine harvester, what's more, the largest model in the manufacturer's offer. However, we must take into account the completely different realities of agriculture from half a century ago, when, despite everything, it was an expensive machine, and above all, very difficult to access for an individual farmer.
Bison harvesting grain on the slopes
In the October and November 1986 issue of the magazine "Tractors and Agricultural Machines", published by the Association of Polish Mechanical Engineers and Technicians, we could read an extremely interesting article by employees of the Agricultural University in Lublin. Prof. Dr. Hab. Jan Gieroba and Dr. Eng. Andrzej Rejak in the text "Adaptation of the Bizon combine harvester to harvesting grain on slopes" described a thresher leveling system of their own design, tested in the years 1981-1982 at the PGR Bircza near Przemyśl.
– Bizon combines that work well on flat terrain do not, unfortunately, ensure proper harvesting on undulating terrain due to large grain losses. Hence, it was necessary to conduct research aimed at (…) undertaking work on adapting the combine from serial production and developing simple solutions for building special combines adapted to work on undulating terrain. There are indeed combines from various foreign companies with automatic leveling (…) however, due to the high price of such combines, we do not import them to the country – states the article from 1986.
Thresher leveling device of the Bizon Z050 combine harvester, photo: Agricultural Machinery and Tractors
As we read further, an attempt to adapt the Bizon Z050 combine harvester was undertaken at the Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Agricultural University in Lublin in 1981. The solution consisted in introducing longitudinal leveling of the thresher by using an oscillating rear suspension support frame and attaching the thresher to it using two hydraulic cylinders.
From simple hydraulics to automation
Initially, the rear of the combine was raised by manually moving the hydraulic distributor lever, and it lowered automatically after retracting it, i.e. the pressure in the system dropped. Field tests showed, however, that this solution did not work well and the system had to be more developed. The hydraulic cylinders were changed from single-acting to double-acting, a different hydraulic distributor was used, and the following were introduced: a control panel, a combine inclination sensor and lifting and lowering limit switches.
– The essence of the automatic leveling device is the sensor pendulum, which allows the electro-hydraulic system to be activated and the combine harvester's thresher to be kept in a horizontal position regardless of the slope inclination. In addition, two small hydraulic cylinders ensure the smoothness of the pendulum's swing and protect the thresher from abrupt leveling when the combine harvester is working on uneven, bumpy terrain. (..) When the combine harvester's inclination angle changes, the pendulum rotates around its own axis and uses an arm to act on the pin of one of the two switches, closing its contacts. (…) The flow of current through the electromagnets causes the distributor slide to move and the flow of oil to the hydraulic cylinders that level the thresher – we read in the 1986 article.
Diagram of the hydraulic leveling system of the thresher, photo: Agricultural Machinery and Tractors
As for the leveling system's operating range, it has been defined as up to 28.1% when lifting the thresher and up to 10.5% when lowering it. Converting this into perhaps easier-to-imagine degrees, it is up to 15.7° up and up to 6.0° down.
The effects of the threshing machine leveling system
According to the authors of an article from almost 40 years ago, in Poland about 23% of crops are located on sloped areas. A comparison of the work of a standard combine harvester with one equipped with a thresher leveling system showed that in the conditions of the Bircza State Agricultural Farm fields, losses during work with the Bizon Z050 uphill amounted to an average of 11%, downhill 1.2%, and across 1.9%.
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In the case of the combine with the thresher levelling system, grain losses were examined only when working up and down the slope, because, as the authors emphasise, the lack of transverse levelling means that the system has no effect on the level of losses when working across the slope. The average losses amounted, depending on the type of grain, from 2.5% in the case of barley and rye, to 3.1% in the case of oats. For comparison, the standard Bizon Z050 achieved a level of grain losses from 9.5% in the case of barley to 15% in the case of wheat in comparable conditions.
– Considering the total grain losses regardless of the slope angle and the direction of the combine harvester operation, the introduction of thresher leveling (…) on the example of PGR Bircza, Przemyśl Province, would have reduced the losses in 1981 during the wheat harvest by 26.3 t, rye by 6.6 t, barley by 8.8 t. In 1982, these figures were as follows: wheat by 35.7 t, rye by 5.3 t, barley by 9.2 t and oats by 35.9 t – states an article from 1986.
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It is worth adding that the solutions developed at the Agricultural University in Lublin have been patented, and the discussed article is accompanied by a large number of photographs and diagrams of individual systems, as well as tables leaving the effects of the work of the compared combine harvesters, taking into account the types of grain and the direction of travel in relation to the slope. It is a pity that the proposed solutions did not become popular, and like many interesting Polish projects, they ended up in a drawer.
