Heyvaert happy with Dewulf Kwatro harvester

The basic tenets of contracting firm Heyvaert were placed by father Heyvaert in the early sixties when starting to harvest chicory. Today, the company has evolved to a specialist in harvesting chicory and potatoes. Willy Heyvaert and his brother François, are still board members of the family company, together with 7 employees. They harvest more than 200 ha chicory and 200 ha potatoes on a yearly basis.

Being a contract worker is just right for Willy. At an age of 62 he still has a lot of love for his job. Willy began at the age of 16 at his father’s company. Those days, they worked with 3 trailed chicory harvesters. The biggest problem was that they couldn’t bring the harvesters into action from the start. They were forced to harvest by hand at the sides before they were able to harvest mechanically. So the need grew to invest in a self-propelled harvester. This was also their first Dewulf-harvester, a R3000 Mega. Willy was in that time already enthusiastic about the harvester, because it did a very qualitative job.

As the company grew, a second and third harvester were purchased. Because the season became increasingly shorter and the need to have a bigger capacity, the urge to invest in a 4-row harvester became more evident. It was a couple of years later that the contracting firm decided to invest in a 4-row harvester. At the end of 2013, they placed their signature for a Dewulf Kwatro, a very good decision according them. Chicory isn’t an easy vegetable to harvest because of the wet conditions. ‘The Kwatro was a logical necessity’ Willy informs us. ‘With tracks under the machine and no wheels through the ridges, we are able to manage such circumstances.
 

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‘We looked at different harvesters to come up with some ideas, but we never thought to buy another brand than Dewulf.’ Says Willy. ‘We are a very demanding contracting company and we dot the I’s and cross the t’s. This is no different for our harvester. Dewulf was willing to think with their R&D-department for a harvester that is suitable for me. We are even convinced that no other manufacturer would do such efforts. Until today, I’m convinced that we have the ideal harvester that is able to harvest the best possible product.’

‘In addition to this, my employees and I spend a lot of hours after each other in the harvester. So the comfort of the cabin is of big importance. Dewulf really made a big step ahead introducing the new cabin on the harvester. They also went the right way with the operation. At my age, it’s not so easy anymore to work with the newest technologies. In the beginning, it took some adapting, but now the operation has (almost) no secrets anymore.

‘We also harvest potatoes with the machine. We harvest for different potato handling companies like McCain, Lamb Weston and Vervaeke. They also appreciated that we invested in a Kwatro. They are amazed which capacity we gain and this without loss of quality. Loading 20 trucks a day in good conditions is no exception. In an underhand way, we already dream about a second Kwatro to enlarge our daily capacity.’

The company Heyvaert is even very happy about the service of Dewulf. ‘In the chicory season, we harvest al lot 24 hours, nonstop, which makes it very hard for the harvester. If there is a problem, we are able to solve a lot by phone, this ensures a minimum of loss in time. If we need service from the factory, we don’t need to wait a couple of days before someone arrives. They try to give us the needed service as soon as possible.’