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| I am looking at corn heads and was wondering what the yield saving advantage is with a Drago head vs a manufacturers (CaseIH 3406) style head. |
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mn | Never having owned a 34 series ih head i would guess not a lot. My series 1 drago isn't very impressive. |
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Cedar Rapids, Iowa | Ran a 12 row Series II for 2 seasons, traded it for a CIH 4412 and couldn't be happier.
The spring loaded stripper plates work good when they're clean and new, but once they're dirty, they always seem to be either too loose or too tight.
The diameter of the auger on the Series II is too small for 12 rows worth of corn. It probably works fine on 6 or 8 row heads as there is less crop coming in.
The geometry between the row unit and auger is poor - the row units have to push the ears up into the auger, not just drop them into a trough.
Supposedly all these issues were fixed with the new GT series.
From what I can tell, Drago heads are either a love or hate thing. I bet you can guess which camp I'm in. |
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nc ia | I always hated the shelling down the row and not being able to pick up down corn with all the IH heads, and I've had them all. Three years a go I had a lot of down corn. My cih head just couldn't get through it. Neighbor came with his Drago II head and went thru here we couldn't. The next year I got a 12 row Drago GT and I just love it. I feel I am saving at least 2 bpa. There just isn't any corn on the ground, whether it's 30 moisture or 17 moisture. After 4000 ac I see very little wear on knives or chains. We also noticed we could drive .2-.3 mph faster because there is less trash going into the combine. This is the first head that I think will actually pay for it's self in all around savings. |
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| What part of the country are you from. I agree with the other posters about the Drago. Maintaining the self adjusting deck plates has been a problem. The Case IH 4000 has come a long way but still looses a lot of Corn in my opinion. |
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Eastern ontario | Switched from a 3406 to a 6 row Drago GT 3 years ago and couldn't be happier. Very little trash coming in and hardly any corn on the ground. Have run in snow as well and no issues with the self adjusting stripper plates. One less job for the operator to worry about. Biggest problem I had was getting rid of the 3406. Still have a 3406 left that we run on the 5088 and had to buy round bar conclaves this year as we were plugging with trash every day. If corn was higher there would be another Drago GT here. |
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Central WI | Went from a 1063 to a drago series one last fall. Definitely shells less than the IH heads. Processes the stalks similar with the knife rolls. Started out the year by taking everything apart and cleaning it since the previous owner neglected that. Only trouble was when it got rained on and then froze. Had to break deck plates looses and then it worked perfectly. Very aggressive head and seems like it will pick ears (and rocks) off the ground if you wanted it too.
It is a 8 row and run it on a 2wd 2388. It is very heavy head compared to he 1063 we had. Any heavier and we would need some weight on the back.
Edited by jaredacm 3/7/2018 06:15
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| About 12 years ago a neighbor bought a new Drago and when they finished with corn we borrowed it for an afternoon and ran check strips with it in 3 fields of 15% corn. For the check strips we ran every other pass with our 963 then unhooked it and finished with the Drago so it was the same combine and same settings. We were determined that we could find enough corn savings to prove to a dad that we could justify a new corn head. We spent a couple of hours counting kernels and the biggest advantage we could find for the Drago was .7 bpa. Needless to say we ran the 963 several more years and still run a 1083 today.
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n.c.iowa | We have both, right now we are running a 3206 and a drago gt.
We did have a 3408 which we traded off for the drago.
In most normal situations we never had too much shelling problems with the ih head, the 3408 we had on flagship machines and we could adjust the feeder house speed to match the conditions, and got by just fine. The 3206 is on a 2366 and is just a two speed gearbox, and we got by pretty good with it on high speed, that is until this past season we had to run it on low speed because of excess shelling.
We split a field doing half of it with the 3206 vs the drago, actually we did several fields this way. And did some kernel counts and we found averages of no difference, up to almost 4 bu. Acre favoring the drago.
We run a 12 row 30" head on a 7120 IH combine, and like others have mentioned in most conditions the gt will bring in less trash and it is truly amazing what you can put through those machines if you don't have to deal with the trash.
But there are a couple of instances where they will bring in more trash, and that is kinda frustrating, kinda related to certain hybrids and stalk quality/type, and weather conditions.
The 3000 series heads have some idiosyncrasies that when fixed help tremendously with shelling, also we visited quite awhile with calmer guys at the commodity classic about their new stalk rolls and stripper plates for the 3000 series heads that appear to address some of issues. |
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SE Nebraska | I have run all the Drago heads and the Drago GT will do a much better job than a series 1 or II and I would not even consider them. Less trash and less shelling. Runs much quieter. In down corn you will not need a corn reel most of the time. |
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NW IA | Put calmer stuff on a 3408, isn't perfect but addressed alot of the issues I had with head. Turned corn harvest into something that was frustrating to mostly enjoyable. At least for the first year away, we will see after we get some more acres under it. |
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n.c.iowa | Did you do the deckplates also?
It seemed that they were pretty adamant about purchasing them too. |
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nw iowa | johnny shoot me an email, probably be tonight before I respond
Edited by nsk 3/7/2018 08:25
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NW IA | Yes we put the chopping rolls in so have to use their deck plates since won’t fit other wise |
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Indiana | I couldnt agree more with mx270a. I would add the company support is very poor also and they don’t stand behind there product. |
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WC Indiana | I can't answer the yield comparison question but ever since we have switched to Drago our maintenance down time has went to nothing. Seemed like we always had bearings or something going out on the 3408 heads. Currently have a 12 row Drago GT 12 row and like it. I was very impressed with the Shred Select (http://www.shredselect.com/) stalk rolls I saw at Louisville. I may try a few rows of them this fall. Looks like they would be very aggressive and really pick clean. |
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NE colorado. & south central SD | .. |
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Drago corn head advantage
