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Mid-Missouri | Taken from thecombineforum.com...
Well, on the 640FD versus MacDon, if you really want to know... I'll setup the situation a little. No-till soybeans into 225 bu corn stalks. High yielding, narrow row, 210K plant population, irrigated soybeans that were tall, green stem, and lodged. Admittedly tough cutting and tough feeding conditions. Dealer response was "can we wait till these dry a little", but the beans themselves were 10% - already too dry. In the span of four days, I cut 102 acres. The combine was short on power, which I covered in a previous post; but the head was the killer. In those four days, I made it across the field exactly 6 times without having to stop to either: cut the stems off the reel from reel wrap, unplug the center feed belt, unplug the side drapers, back the feederhouse up because the feed drum wouldn't feed (this was public enemy #1), or replace sickle sections. I'm sure some are saying "it worked great for us", or "why in the world did you fight it that hard". I will admit, the no-till cornstalks were a brutal problem, and caused many of the other problems. The sickle and guard combination did not do a superb job cutting. The plants would want to push in front of the cutterbar. I know, I know, too low of HydraFlex pressure. If you ran the pressure high enough to where they wouldn't push, the flex quality wasn't very good. As a result, if you ran the reel low enough to get them to feed, the green stem soybeans almost created a haybale around the reel in one pass. If you ran the reel high enough so it wouldn't wrap, then the plants wouldn't feed onto the draper very well and would come in in clumps. The clumps would hit the feed drum, and the slip clutch would go off. Hit the reverser to back up the feed drum, a corn stalk butt would wedge between the cutter bar and the center draper and it would plug. I could go on and on. The side drapers would stall because a corn stalk butt would get wedged between the belt and the undercarriage. And, oh by the way, broke the sickle where the double knife overlaps... Meanwhile the MacDon's handled these same conditions without issue. On a 135 acre pivot, the two 9870/FD70 combos would get 120 acres while I limped along and hoped to get 15. I kept fighting the fight because I was convinced that Deere would not have released something this awful. I will admit that we were the local dealers first experience with the 640FD on soybeans, which is why we had it soooo long relative to other demos. On the last field, I did get to where I could run the head long enough to where we could test the combine (S680). The 9870s got 95 acres and I managed to about double my productivity to 30 acres - wooo-hooo. I do know of other local people who got along good with the head in non no-till, non lodged soybeans. Would love to have hooked up one of the MacDons to the 680 and see what I could do, but that wasn't going to happen. OK, everyone else who loved it can have at me, but that's my two cents.
The whole story here, with some comedy...
http://www.thecombineforum.com/forums/4-john-deere/30672-s670-demo-...
Local MacDon dealer told me a new deere 35 ft draper demo ran in the same field with another deere combine on a 35ft FD70. The FD followed the Deere on some terraces and picked up some beans left behind. Thats all I know. | |
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John Deere or MacDon draper head?
