Duane Bartok wins Agritechnica contest

Grainews and our sister magazine Country Guide ran a contest over the past couple months asking people to tell us about their new on-farm inventions. The person who sent in the best invention, as chosen by a panel of Grainews contributors, would win a trip to Agritechnica. Duane Bartok of Esterhazy, Sask., won for his haybine reverser.

The top photo shows Duane on the right, with his wife, Cindy, and his co-inventor Ken Hudacek on the left.The bottom photo is the reverser.

        Agritechnica, the world's largest indoor farm machinery show, is held in November in Hannover, Germany. I had the pleasure of attending Agritechnica in 2007. I won't be going this year, but Grainews writer Scott Garvey will join Duane, Cindy and Ken at the show. They'll have a great time. A distinct difference between European and North American equipment shows is that at European shows, bigger companies have free beer at their booths.

More about the reverser

Duane originally built the reverser for his Model 1475 New Holland haybine. “We did it by putting an electric valve at the back end of the haybine, which reverses the flow of the oil by simply flipping a switch in the tractor. It has saved me time and money, and I no longer worry about safety of the operator because they do not have to leave the seat of the tractor,” he says.

“I have asked my New Holland dealer several times if there was any kind of reverser for my haybine, but the only reverser available is for the self propelled models," he says. He now makes kits for other pull-type models, including MacDon. See his website or call 306-745-3801 for more information.