SPOKANE — While working as an agronomist, Marcel Kringe would help farmers set up their combines at harvest time.

“It was after work, I was just out there doing it for the fun of it,” he said.

As a side project, Kringe teamed up with growers to develop a faster, easier and safer method to determine the amount of crop lost during harvest.

“It was just a hobby,” he said.

That interest and expertise led Kringe to develop the Bushel Plus system, which measures combine harvest loss. This allows farmers to dial in their combine to minimize the loss of virtually any crop, he said.

“Every combine needs calibration in different crops, so the system works well in all of them,” Kringe said.

Now in its fifth year, his company is headquartered in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, and has customers in Australia and the U.S.

Rather than looking on the ground and trying to count kernels, Kringe started out by putting trays under the combine.

“That got way too dangerous because people were walking beside the big machines, the tires, and then one of the guys fell,” he said. “Thankfully, he didn’t get hit by the back tire. But safety was a big concern of ours (when) developing this product.”

Bushel Plus uses a remotely controlled system to drop a tray while the combine keeps going.

The tray is attached to the combine with electromagnets and can be moved to different machines in seconds, Kringe said.

The tray catches a sample of what’s coming out the back of the machine to determine crop loss.

Farmers then separate the crop from the chaff using an air separator in 30 seconds.

“We said if it’s not fast and easy, the farmer doesn’t want to do it,” Kringe said. “We get busy at harvest and we want to get stuff done. Every bushel they can save means a lot for them.”

Farmers weigh the kernels on a scale, using the Bushel Plus app on their phones to determine how many bushels per acre they’re losing. The app also offers tips to help set up the combine better for the future. Farmers can save the results and settings within the app for the future, Kringe said.

Customers have told Kringe the tool saved them $60,000 in one year, he said.

Kringe said the company has sold thousands of systems. Each system costs $2,200.

“The feedback from a thousand-acre farmer is, that’s about a $2 per acre investment,” Kringe said.

Kringe has a business partner, Chris Sobchuk. They employ two full-time workers and one part-time. A manufacturing company custom builds the equipment.

Kringe grew up as the fourth generation on a farm in Germany. He previously worked as an agronomist in Russia and has lived in Canada for a decade.

“(I) would love to start a family and farm myself,” he said. “That is still my biggest dream — to become a farmer myself, but that is hard to start these days.”

Dusty Walsh, who farms between Spokane and Deer Park, Wash., started using the system when he began growing sunflowers and canola, and was less familiar with how to set up the combine for those crops, he said.

“We wanted some way to actually quantify what we’re losing,” Walsh said. “We were doing pretty good, but it’s still a really good peace of mind to actually be able to put numbers to it and check to make sure you’re doing what you think you are.”

The complicated nature of combines appeals to Kringe.

“You change one thing, and three things down the line change, so you have to keep thinking about what’s actually happening and what’s changing,” he said. “I just like to make things more efficient.”

But he most enjoys consulting with farmers to help them set up their combines.

“I love that, that’s what I burn for,” he said. “My business partner always says, ‘You eat and breathe combines.’ And I talk about them probably in my sleep. It’s just a fascinating way of harvesting.”

Occupation: Technical agronomist and owner, Bushel Plus

Age: 31

Hometown: Bad Laasphe, Germany

Current location: Brandon, Manitoba

Education: Bachelor of science in agricultural engineering in Germany

Family: Single. 

Website: https://bushelplus.ca/