Foot-Powered Mini Thresher

Foot-Powered Mini Thresher MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 34-2-28 A foot-powered thresher is the perfect match for family-sized grain plots or on-farm research plots. Until now, hand threshing was the only alternative for people growing grain in plots too small for a combine. "Producing small grains such as wheat and oats in 1/2 to 1-acre patches often requires harvesting and threshing by hand," says Jim Smith, at The Back to the Land Store. "These units are much faster and are being made by a Tennessee farmer who is fabricating them in his shop." The small-scale thresher consists of a foot treadle, an enclosed threshing reel and a winnowing screen. When the treadle is pumped up and down, connecting rods turn the reel and shake the screen. Grain heads fed into the thresher enclosure are struck by U-shaped beaters mounted on the spinning reel. The grain and trash fall to the vibrating screen. The seed falls through to a sloped discharge chute while other materials slide off. "Some chaff will fall through the screen too, so the grain will require a final winnowing," says Smith. "The screen will thresh out about a pound of grain per minute on average." Smith adds that chaff and debris does have to be removed from the screen periodically. The thresher is priced at $650. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, The Back to the Land Store, 545 Salmon Branch Rd., Erin, Tenn. 37061 (ph 931 764-0034; toll free 866 764-0034; contact@backtotheland.com; www.backtotheland.com).

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