Before the now legendary Bisons entered Polish fields, Vistula was considered a technological miracle in the harvest campaign. Although few examples have survived to this day, this model is undoubtedly a milestone in the mechanization of Polish agriculture. How much did Vistula cost when new? How much was this money worth back then?
Many of us, not only farmers, but also people from outside the industry, more or less connected with the countryside, associate nothing with typical Polish harvests like Bizon combines and their characteristic engine sound. The first design work on this series of combine harvesters began in the late 1960s, but the history of Polish combine harvesters dates back to several years earlier. After a short series of ŻMS-4 under the Soviet license, it was time for Vistula, mainly KZB-3A and KZB-3B, which gradually replaced the shear linkage machines on the largest farms.
The legendary Płock Harvesting Machine Factory
The history of the Harvesting Machinery Factory in Płock in the province. Masovian Voivodeship dates back to the 1860s, when Moses Sarna founded an agricultural machinery repair shop. In 1870, he transformed his company into the Factory of Agricultural Machines and Tools, and the offer included plows and forage harvesters. At that time, the factory employed several dozen people and was located almost in today’s city center, only 400-500 meters from the market square.
Competition was also developing dynamically on the local market. In 1884, a similar product range was introduced by the company Nitkowski, Born i Spółka, to which we will return shortly. In 1890, Paweł Urbański opened a repair shop for agricultural machines and tools. Returning to the Nitkowski, Born i Spółka company, in 1891 it was bought by Maurycy Margulies from Łódź. Wanting to enter the market, he intensively developed the plant, producing carriage axles, forage harvester knives, plow blades, as well as entire plows, harrows and cultivators. According to data from the early 1890s, Sarna’s factory employed 65 people and Margulies’ 60.
The above-mentioned companies operated on the local market in parallel, producing agricultural machinery and spare parts, as well as offering service services for locomotives, sawmill and distillery machines. Only the outbreak of World War II brought more serious changes. Then the Płock plants were nationalized and united under Landmaschinen Fabrik Plock Maschinen-Industrie, at the same time adapting their business profile to the needs of the war.
In June 1945, the production of agricultural machines and equipment in the form of winnowers, threshers, forage harvesters and grinders began in the newly established Płockie Zakłady Maszynowe, based on the above-mentioned companies. By decision of the Minister of Industry and Trade on September 15, 1948, the plant was renamed the Harvesting Machinery Factory, which in 1953 was named after Marcel Nowotka. At the same time, in the same year, the construction of a new headquarters began at an address well known to many farmers at Otolińska Street, where the CNH factory still operates today.
Complete mechanization of plant harvesting
At a time when sickles, scythes, reapers and sheaf binders dominated Polish fields, and only a few of the largest State Agricultural Farms could boast of ŻMS-4 combines, in 1955 the design office of the Harvesting Machinery Factory named after Marcel Nowotka in Płock, under the supervision of Eng. Tadeusz Michalski, started working on a completely new combine harvester. The first model of the new Vistula series, KZB-3A, was a modern machine by the standards of the late 1950s. Interestingly, these combines were powered not only by S53 engines from Starachowice, but also by British Perkins and their licensed counterparts from Yugoslavia, and Spanish Barreiros units.
![Vistula KZB-3A, photo: Maciej Sacha](https://pliki.farmer.pl/i/18/54/41/185441_940.jpg)
– The KZB-3B self-propelled wheeled combine harvester is designed for harvesting and threshing cereals and rapeseed. The KZB-3R combine can be used to harvest rice. Combine harvesters enable complete mechanization of the harvesting of the above-mentioned plants – says “Agroma Informator” from 1970.
To make it clear, especially for the younger generation, how late agricultural mechanization has developed on a larger scale in Poland, let me make a personal digression. Well, archival documents confirm that in my area in 1964, for a dozen or so State Agricultural Farms in the district, there were only 6 combine harvesters. Moreover, a few years later, the State Agricultural Farm in my town conducted training for employees in the operation of a steam locomotive used to power a stationary threshing machine.
Series production and export hit
The production of harvesting machines at FMŻ began in 1948, when the first series of harvesters was created, for which the market was huge in Poland, which was rebuilding after the war. However, a reaper and a threshing machine are not enough for the dynamic development of agriculture, so on April 14, 1954, the first Polish combine harvester – ŻMS-4, manufactured under a Soviet license, left the gates of the Płock factory. The machine was officially presented during the May Day parade, and the designers themselves were behind the wheel during field tests. By 1959, 1,473 copies were built.
In the same year, 1959, production of the completely new KZB-3A combine harvester, which had been under development for several years, began. It gave rise to a series of machines under the common name Vistula and, even before the Bison era, contributed to the mechanization of grain harvesting and threshing on the largest Polish farms. The KZB-3A model is known as the “bagging” Vistula due to the lack of a typical grain tank and a bagging machine mounted behind the operator’s seat, with a characteristic chute for throwing full bags onto the stubble.
Vistula KZB-3A was produced until 1962. During this time, 1,995 units were produced, and some of them were exported to countries such as Brazil, France, Greece, Spain, Cuba, Monaco, Syria, Venezuela and Italy. It was on the basis of this model that an interesting construction was created, the Vistula KZB-3R, adapted to harvest rice, among others. thanks to the use of a tracked running gear. This version was produced in approximately 230 copies, almost all of which were exported.
In 1962, the first units of the new combine harvester, Vistula KZB-3B, began to leave the Płock factory. It is worth emphasizing that at the agricultural fair in Verona in 1963, this machine was praised for its modern technical solutions, even competitive with Western producers. At first glance, the new combine harvester was distinguished from its predecessor by a grain tank with a capacity of 1.3 m3, of course with an unloading pipe, thanks to which the Vistula took on the shape of a typical combine harvester to this day.
– The combine harvester consists of four main units: harvesting unit, threshing unit, driving unit and engine. A diesel engine is placed on the threshing frame, driving the front wheels and all the combine’s working units via two independent clutches. (…) Combine efficiency from 0.5 to 1.5 ha/hour. when the grain in the tank is at least 95% clean, and when working with a cleaner, at least 98%. Throughput capacity of the threshing machine – 9000 kg of mass/hour. To operate the combine harvester – 2 people – when working with the cleaner, 1 person – when working with the tank – according to “Agroma Information” from 1970.
For the equivalent of Vistula – two tractors, a threshing machine and a binder
In 1970, the Vistula KZB-3B was still a modern, highly efficient, and therefore very expensive machine considering the conditions at that time. These combines operated in the largest State Agricultural Farms, Agricultural Production Cooperatives and Agricultural Circles Cooperatives, practically not reaching individual farms.
In fact, for approximately the equivalent of Vistula, you could buy two new tractors, a threshing machine and a bundler. In the 1970 issue of “Informator Agroma”, the Agricultural Equipment Trade Center quoted a price of PLN 210,000 for the Vistula KZB-3B in basic equipment. At that time, Ursus C330 cost PLN 77,000. PLN, bundle worth PLN 31.5 thousand. PLN, and the Warmianka threshing plant PLN 30,000. PLN, which, taking into account the two tractors mentioned, gives a total of PLN 215.5 thousand, i.e. PLN 5.5 thousand. PLN more than the price of Vistula. The difference in price is then the equivalent of, for example, a potato steamer or two wheelbarrows with tires.
Of course, we cannot forget that the mechanization of harvesting and threshing of grain, introduced by Vistula combines, saves a lot of time and the need for labor. Staying with the above-mentioned set of machines, Vistula needed 1-2 people, while 2 tractors required 2 people, a sno-binder – one person and a threshing machine – 6-8 people, which gives a total of about 10 people who will do less work at the same time.
Purchase prices of agricultural produce in 1970.
According to data from the Central Statistical Office, in 1970 wheat was purchased at an average price of PLN 3,500/t, rye at approximately PLN 2,400/t, barley at PLN 3,100/t, and oats at approximately PLN 2,200/t. At that time, potatoes were sold for an average of PLN 800/t, and sugar beets for PLN 600/t.
Beef livestock was purchased at an average price of PLN 11.70/kg, veal livestock at approximately PLN 12.20/kg, and pig livestock at an average price of PLN 20.90/kg. The average purchase price for milk in 1970 was approximately PLN 2.64/l, and for chicken eggs PLN 1.70/piece.
The new Vistula KZB-3B was worth 60 tons of wheat, 88 tons of rye, 68 tons of barley or 95 tons of oats, respectively. Today, we would all certainly like it if we could buy a new combine harvester for this amount of agricultural produce. However, practice shows that when selling 60 tons of wheat at current prices, we can only choose from used machines from the 1980s that are tired of many years of operation.
Technical data and additional equipment
Parameter | Value |
Number of cylinders | 6 |
Engine capacity | 5650 cm3 |
Engine power | 65 KM |
Empty weight | 4200 kg |
Header width | 3,3 m |
Maximum efficiency | 1,5 ha/h |
Among the additional equipment, the mentioned “Agroma Guide” lists:
- Add-on PS-4 straw baler,
- Cleaner with baggers,
- Swath pick-ups,
- Lifts for fallen grain,
- sun visors,
- 4 m wide header.