Built to Keep Harvest Moving: AGI Grain Handling Equipment Focuses on Time, Capacity and Ease of Use
When harvest is moving, the last thing a farmer wants is equipment slowing things down. Trucks need to get unloaded, combines need to stay in the field and grain needs to keep moving where it needs to go.
That was the thinking behind several grain handling solutions AGI brought to the Farm Progress Show, where the team spoke with Agriculture of America about equipment designed to save time, make day-to-day operation easier and simplify service when it’s needed.
Making every minute count
For anyone who has spent harvest climbing in and out of a truck or repositioning a semi over a swing hopper, small improvements can make a big difference over the course of the season.
The AGI Westfield MKX Xtend Power Swing is designed to help take some of those extra steps out of unloading. Instead of driving past the swing hopper and backing up to line everything up, the operator can drive in, stop and move the hopper into position.
As AGI product specialist Brent Woodcock explained to Agriculture of America, “This way you drive in, stop, get out, and run it in. It saves you time. Time is money.”
That same focus on getting trucks unloaded and back on the road carries over to the AGI LCX4 conveyor.
The LCX4 is the world’s first PTO-driven mechanical swing conveyor, with both the main conveyor and swing hopper powered from the tractor’s PTO. The design allows farmers to reach capacities of up to 9,000 bushels per hour, while a 60-horsepower tractor can run the unit. Available lengths range from 68 to 108 feet.
For farmers, that capacity comes back to a simple goal: spend less time waiting at the bin and more time harvesting.
“With the higher capacity we have now with this belt conveyor, you can get back to the field faster and keep those combines rolling,” AGI territory manager Kevin Primmer told Agriculture of America.
Easier to work with when it matters most
Capacity is important, but equipment also needs to be practical to maintain during the busiest weeks of the year.
That idea helped shape the LCX4, which includes additional shielding around the PTO area and improved access doors for checking belt tension, greasing and routine service. The hopper also uses steel sides instead of collapsible canvas for added durability and a lower profile. A redesigned lift arm brings the hopper closer to the conveyor, helping create a narrower transport width when moving down the road.
AGI brought the same thinking to its redesigned bucket elevator.
Product Manager Jake Neujahr described the elevator as the “central point of that farmyard.” With so much depending on it during harvest, the equipment was redesigned from the ground up, backed by hundreds of customer conversations and several hundred hours of engineering work.
The new design provides greater flexibility for farmyard layouts while creating more room for platforms, stairs and service access. The elevator leg is engineered to order and also includes a patent-pending guided gravity take-up system along with multiple inspection and service access points.
As Neujahr put it, "Efficiency is really the name of the game here.”
Equipment designed around the farmyard
Whether it’s eliminating an extra truck movement, increasing unload capacity or making a piece of equipment easier to inspect and service, these updates are aimed at the same thing: helping farmers keep harvest moving.
Because when the crop is ready and the weather gives you a window, there isn't much room in the day for unnecessary steps.