FARGO, N.D. – The development of specialized corn technology has kicked into high gear as acreage continues to increase in the northern Great Plains states and the Canadian prairie provinces.
“BT corn is very productive in dryland farming, but residue management is a major issue,” says Stewart Peterson of North Country Marketing in Fargo.
To deal with the residue, one school of thought concentrates on tillage equipment to mangle, bury and seed through the stubborn stalks. These engineers focus on cultivators, rollers and seeding equipment.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
The other school of thought attacks the problem at the combine header. The thinking here is that it’s more efficient to pulverize a BT stalk before it hits the ground. This not only eliminates the expense of additional field passes but also gives the stalk more time to decompose.
Proponents of managing residue on the combine say that if the weather is OK for combining, then it’s also OK for stalk chopping.
This led to advances in chopping corn heads, many of which originate in Europe.
New machines are a regular feature at the Big Iron Show in Fargo, and last month one of them was the Italian-built Cressoni Roto crosscut corn head.
Peterson said the cross-cut action is vital to ensure stalks decompose before spring seeding.
“The standard chopping corn head slices the stalk vertically,” he said.
“It opens the stalk so it’s more biodegradable when it’s laying on the field surface. But the cut is only one direction. Our cross-cut head still slices the stalk vertically, just like any other chopping head. But it also crosscuts horizontally. That’s what the red teeth are for. It’s much more aggressive. The stalk is cut into smaller pieces so it decomposes quicker.”
Each row has 100 radial knives interacting with 10 axial knives.
The cross-cut head doesn’t shake the corn cob as much because the stalk is held tightly in the knife mechanism. The geometry of the knives make them catch each stalk in many opposite points at the same time.
This firm grip also allows a lower blade speed. Reduced shaking means less kernel loss.
The smaller residue size also reduces the volume of residue that must travel through the combine. This allows faster field speed and reduces plugging in the combine.
All this aggressive cutting action requires more knife action. Peterson said the Roto cross-cut head meets that criteria by using a larger cutting surface where more steel meets stalk than is seen in other cross cut heads.
He said more cutting surface means each blade is required to perform less work. This has the added advantage of longer blade life.
“We get about a third more time out of each side of every blade,” he said.
“These blades go 4,000 to 5,000 acres. Then you unbolt them and reverse them so you get another 4,000 to 5,000 acres.”
The spinning chopper blades cut the stalks off at about eight centimetres above ground level. Peterson said the blades do more work and take more of a beating than the cross-cut blades, so they generally last only 500 acres.
“But these chopper blades are reversible also, so after that time, you turn them over and get another 500 acres. You can also disengage the chopper blades if you want to bale the stover for cattle or if you have areas with a lot of rocks. Each chopper has a lever to turn it on or off.
“They have a very unique ratchet-back mechanism so if you do hit a rock or something and the shaft stops abruptly, the shock doesn’t transfer back into the transmission. It does a good job of protecting the transmission.”
The gearboxes are made of tempered aluminum rather than cast iron or steel.
Each row has its own independent clutch to protect from overloads. The deck plates are hydraulically adjustable.
Roto cross-cut head sizes range from six rows at 15 feet on 30 inch spacing up to 12 rows at 23 feet on 22 inch spacing.
“The biggest surprise when farmers look at the head is the power requirement,” Peterson said. “It’s only three horsepower per row more than a regular chopping head.”
The Cressoni Roto cross-cut option costs $350 US per row.
Contact Peterson at 701-277-1022 or visit www.northcountrymarketing.biz.
