Kazys Mikalauskas

"A good cleaner, its performance is fully sufficient for our farm."

After the collapse of the collective farms, in 1994 farmer Kazys Mikalauskas began farming in the Kelmė district.

"It all started with one cow and a T25 tractor. In the year I started farming with a tractor, I sowed 3 hectares of barley. With the money we received, we continued to buy land, buildings and gradually expanded," says K. Mikalauskas.

They started farming with dairy cows, but due to fluctuating milk prices eight years ago they switched to raising beef cattle, working 400 hectares of fields. This year the farm completely changed its direction. They invested heavily in land, which they expanded to 700 hectares within a year, gave up livestock and turned the farms into grain warehouses.

"We grow everything that grows, from exotics we grow black radish, this year we are also trying out the cultivation of root radish," says the farmer.

The Czech grain cleaner KUT 800 was purchased by the farmer eight years ago. The Czech company JK Machinery is well known on the international market. It produces a wide range of grain cleaners, which are suitable for small and medium-sized farms to farms requiring high capacity. The KUT 800 is a compact cleaner that can be used in any warehouse.

"The efficiency depends a lot on the moisture content of the grain you clean. We clean grain with a moisture content of 15-16. So its efficiency fully satisfies us and even exceeds the manufacturer's stated efficiency. No other cleaner sucks up beetles and small debris like this one. This cleaner sucks up small debris perfectly. And it is fully sufficient for a 400 ha grain farm."
Of course, we try to process the fields first so that we have to clean as little as possible, but these are still additional costs," says K. Mikalauskas.

The simple design and high productivity of the KUT cleaning machine are highly appreciated by small and medium-sized farms. It is most often used for sorting and cleaning freshly harvested crops, impurities are separated from the main mass with the help of sieves and air flow. Due to the different sizes of individual grains, a pair of sieves ensures the separation of larger ones from the main mass, and the sieves are perfectly cleaned with the help of rubber balls. The cleaning machine uses two pairs of different sieves, installed in two floors, arranged in a row. An air flow is allowed through the sieves, which is regulated separately. And the correct selection of sieves and air volume guarantees ideal sorting.

"This cleaner does not require any maintenance. Two sieves, you open it, you clean it and that's it. When the cleaner was delivered, we were skeptical, it seemed like it was just a frame, but after trying it out, our opinion changed dramatically. I can confidently recommend it to a farm like ours," says K. Mikalauskas.