FARGO, North Dakota – The Geringhoff Rota Disc Stalk Destruction Corn Head attacks the residue problem at the front of the combine in the header, rather than waiting until the stalks pass through and out the back.
The German company first addressed the stalk shredding problem in 1964 when it mounted a lawn mower blade type of apparatus under each row unit.
Although a similar design is still used by some companies, Geringhoff abandoned the concept because the lawn mower design cannot hold the stalk. The mower blades simply swat at the stalk, which is free to bend under impact. Also, the high speed blades can break off and become dangerous projectiles.
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Geringhoff reasoned that for the best possible cut, the stalk needed to be grasped by a holding mechanism while being slashed by a sharp cutting blade. As a result, in 1987 the company introduced a shredding knife design. This machine resulted in better segmentation of the stalk so it would decompose faster and allow seeding of the subsequent crop.
By the 1990s, BT corn (Bacillus thuringiensis) was becoming more prevalent in the global fight against the European corn borer. One feature of the new BT varieties was stronger and tougher stalks.
This was somewhat effective in battling the bugs, but it made the task of managing corn residue more difficult. If the stalks were not adequately shredded, they provided the perfect winter home for the corn borer.
Although the shredding knife had been effective on previous corn varieties, Geringhoff engineers saw that they needed more complete destruction of the stalk to deal with the expansion of BT corn acreage.
In 1997 they introduced a concept that uses two stripping rollers intermeshing with a third roller that has self-sharpening carbide cutting discs spaced at 30 millimetre intervals.
Each corn stalk is wedged into the gap so the 15 cutting discs are able to slice it into pieces ranging from three to six inches. Grooves in the stripping rollers line up with the cutting discs to ensure that each cut goes all the way through the stalk.
The cuts are made at a 25 degree angle, thus exposing more of the stalk ends to the atmosphere so they decompose quicker and destroy the corn borer’s home.
Geringhoff Stalk Destruction Corn Heads are sold by Degelman Industries from its office in Minot, North Dakota. According to Allan Haman, manager of the Minot office, the field surface behind the Rota Disc head is usually ready for the subsequent seeding operation without tillage.
“The corn stalks are absolutely shredded. I don’t think you’d ever find a stalk that’s six inches long. Most of it’s shorter than three inches,” Haman said.
“There’s always a difference in soil types, of course. A lighter soil will dry out quicker than a heavy clay. But unless you have a problem with too much soil moisture, that field is ready for seeding after you’ve harvested with the Rota Disc head. You basically eliminate the extra field passes.”
The Rota Disc corn headers are available to match the capacity of the newest Class 8 and Class 9 combines. They can be ordered as small as a four row header for seed growers, all the way up to 16 and 18 row headers.
The largest folding Rota Disc header is a 16 row, 30 inch model that folds from 41 feet down to 21 feet in less than one minute.
It is also available with a sunflower adapter that runs the sunflower stalks through the same slicing apparatus.
Contact Allan Haman at Degelman in Minot at 701-852-1876, or visit www.geringhoff.com.
