Irrigation Leader October 2018

Page 30

THE INNOVATORS

Clearing Fields for Over 50 Years: Degelman Industries Rock Pickers

Degelman's Rock King in action.

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IRRIGATION LEADER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DEGELMAN.

ince 1962, Degelman Industries has been supplying because of the large deposits of glacial rock that are farmers all around the United States and Canada exposed every spring. They do particularly well in the rocky with effective solutions for large-scale rock removal mountain soil found in the Twin Falls region of Idaho, a in their fields. Degelman designs and manufactures rock state that is one of Degelman’s biggest markets. pickers—machines that give farmers the capability to Degelman offers four models of rock picker: the Prong quickly and effectively remove large numbers of rocks from Picker R570P, the Signature Series 6000, the Signature their fields. Degelman was founded on a Series 7200, and the newly introduced farm in Raymore, Saskatchewan. Rock King. The Prong Picker, the smallest “The most important Wilf Degelman needed a better solution the models, is used to spot-pick rocks. thing about Degelman of to removing the rocks from his fields than There is no reel mechanism on the Prong is that we always what his farmhands could provide. He Picker; it uses grill tines that are run in designed and built his first rock picker: overbuild our products the ground up to the rock that you want a machine that he could pull behind his so that they will stand to remove from the field. The Prong Picker tractors to remove rocks from the field. then scoops underneath the rock, lifts it, the test of time.” Degelman currently employs over and dumps it into an onboard hopper. The — JASON FAULKNER, 250 people at its manufacturing and Signature Series 6000 and 7200 models U.S. SALES MANAGER sales hubs in Regina, Saskatchewan, and closely follow Wilf Degelman’s original Hillsboro, North Dakota. The company rock picker design and are named after manufactures several models of rock picker using the size of their respective 60-inch and 72-inch grills. The Wilf Degelman’s original 1962 design. wider the grill, the wider the rocks the picker can process. Farmers usually run their rock pickers in the fall, to The Rock King—Degelman’s largest rock picker, with a spot-pick rocks they found during harvest, and in the 96-inch-wide grill—must be pulled by a four-wheel-drive spring, before planting, to collect rocks that have become tractor with at least 250 horsepower. exposed during the winter. The freezing and thawing of All Degelman rock pickers have open floors that allow the ground pushes buried rocks closer to the surface, and dirt to fall through and back into the field as it breaks off after the winter snows melt, they appear on the surface. the rocks, preventing the removal of soil from the field. Degelman pickers are relied on heavily in glacier country They also come with hydraulic dumps and replicable


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