Agco Challenger combine: harvesting grain, baling stover, straw simulteneously

In Kansas, the Challenger combine from Agco can harvest wheat and bale straw for biomass energy production at the same time without straw ever hitting the ground. The machine can be used to the same effect for corn, switchgrass or miscanthus harvest.

Feedstox, owned by Kansas Alliance for Biorefining and Bioenergy and partially funded by $4.8 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds administered by the Kansas Department of Commerce, has purchased two Challenger combine-balers to date, that it will lease out to farmers in an attempt to make harvesting both grain and biomass more cost efficient.