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| You'll love working ground with chopped stalks. It is a key part of residue management and the stalk not only passes through the tillage tool more easily (no plugging), but the stalk is sized to be incorporated more thoroughly into the topsoil. When comparing brands, first realize that none of them are absolutely perfect; each has something it does well or an advantage and each will have a disadvantage. And they will all require more maintenance than a standard cornhead, which seems obvious. For conventional and minimum till, I really like the job that the Geringhoff does with its Rota-Disc type chopping. It drives smoother with no vibration that you can get with the rotary type choppers also. From a drives standpoint, it seems to have a lot fewer problems with driveshafts and such that a lot of the rotary chopper heads are prone to having. So in my mind, I believe the Geringhoff does the best job and is overall the more reliable than the Drago, Cressoni, JD/Lexion/CNH heads. The downside is that the Geringhoff tends to windrow the residue in between the rows as opposed to spreading it out like you get with the action of a rotary type. Can be an issue at times for no-till operations next season, but as said, if you're a conventional or min-till, no problem. Second thing is that the Gerinhoff (like the Drago and Cressonis I have been around) tend to have a slow auger speed. If you have a large combine capable of handling one of these chopping heads and maintaining ground speeds of 4, 5, 6 mph, the head often may not keep up and will start backfeeding because the auger is too full. I like the Lexion head's ability in this respect as it really seems to be able to keep up to the big Cat combine behind it and you can really maintain productivity without frustrating feeding problems. The Geringhoff seems to do better in high ambient humidity (damp) days with this and on dry windy days, it can be a problem (Drago and Cressoni, same thing). Last point I would make is that all of them take power and put considerable strain on the combine's drive system. Make sure you get a combination that will hack it. Newer CIH combines and all Lexion combines have a very stout drive system that holds up well to the demands imposed by these heads. JD has also just introduced a 5 speed powershift drive system to be able to run these larger cornheads. So make sure that your combine is up to the task as well. | |
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chopping corn heads
