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Southern MN | Looking to purchase my first stalk chopper now that the mold board plow has been parked. I plant with a 12 row planter and harvest with a 6 row corn head. I'm looking for something used and economical for a smaller younger farmer who's not affriad to put a little labor into equipment.
So first question is should I match the stalk chopper width to the corn head width? If so, why? There seem to be more 20' choppers for sale than 15' ones, and 20' would get the job done faster with less fuel, that's my main reason for considering 20' vs. 15'.
Second question is 3pt or pull type? Things I'm considering are ease of hookup, weight on my 2wd tractors, and ease of turning around. If I go with 15', perhaps 3pt would make the tighter turns easier and less painful on the pto shaft. If I go with a 20', perhaps a pull type might be a better option since turns are wider and 20' is a lot of weight on my 2wd tractors.
I'm thinking about a Balzer, Alloway, or Loftness brand. Side slicer knives.
Am I missing anything? Any advice or recommendations you have for me? What are your likes/dislikes with your choppers?
Thanks in advance. |
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Winkler, Manitoba Canada | http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=186802&mid=136... Link to previous discussion about the same topic. |
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| If you've got enough tractor (120 pto hp +) and don't have any problems with getting down the road go with a 20' and I'd go pulltype just for the ease of hooking it up. 20' driving slower will do a better job than 15' going faster. As for the pto shaft, skip passes. It isn't that hard to count 30" rows. |
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DE | I got a 15' 3pt Alloway I'm looking to sell but I'm a long ways from you, DE. The 3pt is great for servicing because you can actually sit on one of those little mechanics seats on wheels and roll right under there and change the knives and no pto chatter and no high dollar cv joint to worry about. If your tractor has electronic hitch, just hit the button at ends for up and hit it again for down. |
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| I had a stroebel(sp) and liked it, 15' 3 pt. All mechanical,no pto required,,,the faster you drove the better action it had. Throws alot of crap and dirt clods at back window a screen shield would work good if your in rock country,,,like the rotary hoes had.
Saying all that I went to no till and found it better to leave them stand because it flows thru better. Recreation tillage doesnt do much good. If you have ground that tends to clod and slab no till works good cause it doesnt give it a chance to. Do you REALLY 'need' to chop the stalks?? |
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west central MN | from my experience it works best to go against the direction of travel of the combine if you want to cut the stalks off short, therefor a 6 row would work best. A 3 point saves a lot of time in the turns but a 2 wd gets pretty dangerous on the road with a 20 foot unless you have a LOT of weight on the front end. Loftness does a great job but the design of the hangers on the older ones tend to be hard to remove after 1200-1500 acres and if you then need to flip them in the busy season you wont like it. We have a loftness. For a 6 row its tough to beat the old john deeres (model 27 I beleive). |
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W. Central MN | If you have mostly straight rows and a tractor heavy enough to handle a mounted 20' I would recommend that. Always seems bumpy on the headlands plus the possibility of turning too short. A mounted chopper is priceless if you ever need to harvest in the mud and leave ruts.
I don't worry about following the direction of the combine and have never owned a chopper that matched the width of my corn head.
All 3 brands you mentioned are good.
Edited by Paul 777 3/1/2011 07:31
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North Central, Iowa | Tim, you have mail. |
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east central ND | I have a 12 row planter, and combine with a 6 row head. Upgraded the header. so I traded a JD 120 pull type 20' this winter at the local JD dealer, still had decent knives, and the hood is good. Was a good load for the old 4430. You should be able to buy it or a similar one for under $4500. You can get a beat up one on auction for less than $3000 in this area of East central ND. Most guys going to chopping heads. I thought it did a good job on the stalks, but it had trouble shreading where the grain cart drove the stalks down. One other thing that it did have trouble with is triple stack stocks that did not mature right a couiple years ago, they were rubbery, and alot of them seemed to just slide under. With normal, dry stalks, it did fine. It was a big improvement in chopping, and we used less fuel than when we shreded with a 1508 JD mower that took 6 rows. I could let you know where it is if you were interested. |
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North of Iowa | I have had Bush Hog, JD, MC, and Woods thru my chopping years, and hands down the woods (Alloway) was by far the best chopper I used. A 20' 3pt. will require alot of weight or front wheel drive. I used a 15 ' on a two wheel drive and got along fine. Chopping direction depends on how good your head is. With everyone going to chopping heads there are alot of choppers for sale, so you should be able to find a good one at a decent price. |
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| I know that you did not ask this but have you thought about a chopping corn head?
If you need to stick with a chopper we used to run a 20' Alloway mounted on a 2wd JD 4450 and had no problems.
Edited by Smoothlander 3/1/2011 08:48
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Lac qui Parle County Minnesota | Same as you, have a 12 row planter and a 6 row head. I would go with the 20' stalkchopper. We have used both types. We had a 15' pull type which did a good job, but I didn't like it when it came to turning. We would skip over 12 rows or so to put less strain on the pto drive line when turning. When we went to a 20', we bought a semi - mount, (2point) Loftness. Really like the fact that you can turn sharp and the drive line always stays straight. The 2pt carries about the same weight as a pull type. Loftness s you to use a quick hitch so hooking up is pretty easy also. I have a 20' to sell later if your interested. Buried under a bunch of snow right now. Decent shape but needs a new pto clutch. Email is in profile.
Edited by Gromit 3/1/2011 15:34
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| Does anybody up there use the Buffalo-Besler-Orthman type rolling stalk cutters? They knock stalks down ,cut them some and pin part of them to the ground so they dont blow. Drive as fast as you want and not much HP or fuel. |
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| I had a 20 foot Alloway 3pt and my brother had one also. I spent $9,000 and he spent $7,000 on rear ends because there was too much pressure on the PTO shaft when lifting up and down. We made both ours into pull types. Plus, I did one thing better. I bought a Case IH chopping corn head. Solved all problems. Pulls easy on a 2188 IH combine. |
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EC MN - Hour North of 'The Cities' | Is this in ridge-till or conventional till?
Have thought about using them in a strip-till scenario... |
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Lac qui Parle County Minnesota | Haven't seen any in my area. Our problem is that with our shorter seasons we need to really chew up the stalk to get it to break down over time better. Stalk choppers are getting few as more are going to a chopping style corn head. |
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Southern MN | Thanks for all the feedback.
As for the chopping corn head idea, that's not ecomical for my operation. Not enough acres to justify the expense.
As for the idea about not chopping, leaving the stalks stand, I have considered that. I think for my operation its best to chop the stalks.
I like the idea of a semi-mounted 20' chopper. That seems to be the best of both the fully mounted and pull type choppers and that's what I'll be hunting for this summer.
Thanks again for the feedback, this site is great! |
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| tim4870 - 3/1/2011 17:45
As for the chopping corn head idea, that's not ecomical for my operation. Not enough acres to justify the expense.
I would urge you to take a look at the numbers before you make a decision, chopping heads have come down in cost and many people are moving away from the 6 row head (in my area anyway). Add that to the cost of fuel to run the chopper and another hired hand and the chopping heads are not out of line. Just a thought. |
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Aberdeen MS | If he has the combine to handle it. I was looking at possibly a 6 row for my 1460 and was advised by 2 different dealers I don't have the ponies.
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east central ND | very good point, I demo's a 6 row on the old JD 9500 and it had enough HP to go about 2.5 mph, without trying to unload on the go.... Bought an old 9600 to run the 6 row chopper head I am getting. |
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Stalk Chopper advice and recommendations needed
