For those at their wits’ end with rampaging blackgrass, almost any form of control is worth considering.

And one drastic method that’s beginning to grow in popularity is the use of Zurn’s Top Cut Collect – a tool that snips off seed heads poking above the crop before bundling them into a hopper ready to be disposed of later.

See also: Contractor invests in Zurn Top Cut Collect blackgrass harvester

The fact that there’s little change from £100,000 when buying such a machine means they’re only really suited to specialist contractors who can push them hard in their limited working window – typically between May and July.

So, farmers keen to draft one in need to get one of these outfits on speed dial.

Rory and Digby Cooper of Warwickshire-based DL and KJ Cooper are two such individuals.

Rory and Digby Cooper © James Andrews

They ran a Zurn Top Cut Collect for the first time last year and, such was the demand, that they’ve invested in a second for this season.

“We put one advert on Facebook and then took it down because we couldn’t get around any more customers,” says Rory.

“Word of mouth was enough for the work to come in and we’d pick up more in an area when people saw what we were up to.”

In total, they carried out blackgrass harvesting for some 50 farms, covering a total of 1,270ha.

Some of these were close to their base near Southam, Warwickshire, but they also ventured into Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire, and eventually reached as far east as Cambridgeshire.

Ideal conditions

Though the workload was plentiful, vagaries of the weather, crop conditions and weed growth stage limited the amount of ground they could cover in a day.

“Obviously, the blackgrass has got to be above the crop at the time we go in, but it won’t flow through the machine if it’s damp so we have to wait for the dew to lift in the mornings and stop when it comes down again in the evenings,” says Digby.

Once up and running, the 12m machine trundles along at speeds of up to 5kph, which is varied according to the density of blackgrass.

In light to moderate coverings, it’s able to travel full runs without having to empty the hopper – either into a waiting telehandler bucket or onto the ground for the customer to dispose of as they see fit.

© James Andrews

In many cases, the seed heads are tipped in a corner and left to rot down in the hope that they will lose their viability over time.

But, in thicker stands, they sometimes have to empty part way along which does slow progress.

In addition to blackgrass, the machine was used successfully to harvest Italian ryegrass and wild oats – in theory it’ll work with most weeds that have seed heads sticking above the crop.

Clearly, it isn’t able to capture all seeds, and there are some losses during the harvesting process, but the Coopers reckon they’re able to collect about 70%.

“It’s not a miracle worker, but it’s another tool to help reduce the burden and it can rescue a crop that might otherwise have to be sprayed off,” says Rory.

“We actually went through a couple of fields twice to catch any later maturing plants that weren’t tall enough to stand above the crop the first time.”

On their biggest day last year, they were able to cover 50ha, but most were considerably lower than this. Plus, the distance they needed to travel between jobs meant they were at the limit of what one machine could do.

So, by end of the season in July, they concluded that they needed a second and did a deal with their local dealer, Farol, to buy a lightly used ex-demonstrator for £85,000 – about £10,000 less than full price at the time.

Though virtually identical to the first model, this newcomer has a couple of upgrades to improve performance.

© James Andrews

These include a faster oil pump that allows the central elevator to run quicker so that the seed heads are thrown farther into the hopper for better filling.

It also has slides instead of rollers under the header belts, as these had a habit of seizing up.

“One of the good things about Zurn is that it keeps bringing out updates to improve performance which it will also be fitting to our older machine,” says Digby.

Tramline width

The machines will work with any tramline width, but farms have to accept that there will be some extra wheel marks.

However, if the problem has got bad enough to warrant calling them in, this is usually of little concern.

Trampling is kept to a minimum by running their Claas Arion 630 and 610 on 300 rear/270 front row crop wheels, and GPS autosteer helps the outfits maintain an arrow-straight bearing.

In addition, this means they can concentrate fully on adjusting the machine to capture the maximum number of seed heads while minimising damage to the crop.

© James Andrews

The brothers charge £150/hour for the service including fuel and they will travel any distance that’s realistic in a conventional tractor.

“We try and work in a loop so that we can maximise the amount of cutting time relative to travel, but the logistics can be tricky, particularly when some blackgrass is ready to cut and some isn’t,” says Rory.

“The move to running two machines will make this far easier and mean we can get around a lot more people.”