🌾 Custom Equipment for Separating Mixed Crops at Harvest
Intercropping is gaining popularity for its soil health benefits, increased yields, and improved biodiversity. But harvesting two crops together creates a new challenge: how do you efficiently and gently separate them after harvest?
Bench Industries provides customized cleaning equipment specifically designed to handle this complexity.
The Challenge of Cleaning Intercropped Commodities
When two crops are harvested together — such as Chicpeas and flax or peas and canola  — the result is a blend of different sizes, densities, and weights. Without the right equipment, this mixture can lead to:
Inneficent Separation
Excess dockage
Damaged seed
Lost value
Our Customized Cleaning Solution
We adapt our 72″ and 108″ Air Screen Machines to handle intercropped harvests by adding a custom discharge conveyor beneath the machine. This upgrade allows for two product streams, separated by air flow and screen sizing.
The bottom-mounted conveyor makes it possible to direct your smaller commodity out the opposite side of the machine — preventing it from mixing with scalpings or air liftings. This setup provides a cleaner final product and reduces loss during post-harvest handling.
🔧 Custom Options Include:
Bottom-mounted conveyor for clean split discharge
Electrical – Forward/ Reverse and speed control to easily adjust conveyor
Adjustable screens for different crop sizes
Fine-tuned air settings to separate by density and weight
📸 Visual Examples
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Essentially, we remove the bottom siftings pan and install a conveyor in its place, allowing you to discharge the sifted commodity more effectively. This setup enables a more balanced 50/50 product split, which wouldn’t be possible with a standard bottom tray — as it would become overloaded when handling a near-equal mix of two commodities.
Compatible Machines
These systems are most often built around:
Why Intercropping Requires Specialized Equipment
Intercropping doesn’t create cleaning challenges due to crop size — it creates the need to separate two different commodities after harvest. Whether you’re growing lentils with barley or peas with canola, both crops are harvested together but must be separated before processing or sale.
Bench Industries adapts its equipment to address this exact need. Our modified air screen machines don’t clean both crops simultaneously — instead, they screen and clean the larger commodity while a custom bottom-mounted conveyor sifts out the smaller crop, creating two distinct product streams in a single pass.
Recognized in University Research
Bench Industries’ portable intercropping grain cleaner was featured in a North Dakota State University Extension article highlighting practical intercropping methods in the Northern Plains.
Our equipment was shown in action separating a pea-canola intercrop using a custom discharge system. This showcases how our designs hold up in real-world conditions and academic research.
Recognized in University Research
Bench Industries’ portable intercropping grain cleaner was featured in a North Dakota State University Extension article highlighting practical intercropping methods in the Northern Plains.
Our equipment was shown in action separating a pea-canola intercrop using a custom discharge system. This showcases how our designs hold up in real-world conditions and academic research.
đź’¬ Ready to Clean Smarter?
Whether you’re intercropping now or preparing for next season, we can help you build the right system.
[Request a Quote] to get started.
🟢 Improved Soil Health and Nutrient Cycling
Intercropping supports beneficial microbial activity, boosts soil enzyme function, and improves nutrient retention — especially when legumes are involved.
đź”— Read the full study (PMC)
đź”— ScienceDirect: Intercropping and Soil Microbial Diversity
🌾 Greater Yield Stability
Diversifying crops within a single field helps protect against weather variability and market fluctuations. Intercropping has been shown to improve overall yield stability across multiple seasons.
đź”— ScienceDirect: Yield Stability in Intercropping
🛡️ Natural Pest and Disease Suppression
Crop diversity helps interrupt pest lifecycles and reduces disease incidence by promoting a more resilient ecosystem.
đź”— Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems Study
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These benefits, paired with the right grain separation equipment, make intercropping not only practical but profitable.