Two innovative farmers, Steve Shoun & Curtis Coombs were looking for a way to remove the residue from the wheat fields. When they pooled their ideas, time and energy, they created an environmentally friendly, bio-degradable product and Strauff Fiber (which is a combination of Straw and Chaff) is the result.
Being No-Till farmers, Coombs & Shoun, needed to burn the fields in order to plant their crops. Having a large residue problem, being next to forest land and really not wanting to burn, they wanted to figure out a way to remove the residue without burning. Hooking a baler up behind a combine made sense to both of them, but coming up with the particulars was another story.
After years of thinking of different ways to make the baler propel its self behind the combine, Shoun was shown a youtube video of a combine baler in Australia. They were running three of them in their farming operations. Coombs contacted them, and after numerous phone calls and visits to Washington state, convinced them to help us connect the baler to our combine.
After many hours of brainstorming, hard work and sweat, the Com-Baler was complete.
The main concern at this point was; 1- Could the Com-Baler operate with the high yielding fields? 2- How would it do on the hillsides? There were a few items that Curtis and Steve had to adjust as they went, but everything went better than expected for the trail run.
Through the process of wanting to get the residue off the fields, Shoun and Coombs needed to figure out what to do with the entire residue once it was baled. They found someone to pelletize a small batch of straw for them. Burning the pellets as a heat source was the main thought but quickly realized that the straw pellets might work as bedding. After testing the straw pellets absorb more than the wood pellets. The Strauff bedding was developed.
The pellets for burning are still in the testing phase but with the joint efforts of Coombs and Shoun, Strauff Flames will be available soon.