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Windom, MN | Have experience with Geringhoff Rotadisc and JD stalkmaster.
Geringhoff did a nice job, but seemed to need to be rebuilt quite often. The front three discs would always wear down quicker than the rest, and the stationary knives sucked...I learned after we got rid of it that you could run without them. But I do feel it used the least amount of power out of all chopping heads, just took more maintenance, didn't handle down corn as well, and if you got off the row it didn't chop. But with the vertical shredding, it threw the stalk on the ground and the residue didn't seem to blow in the wind like the residue from the lawnmower blade heads do.
JD Stalkmaster isn't mine, but been around it enough through the years. More gearbox losses than on the Geringhoff...score is like JD 3 Geringhoff 0. You can shut off chopping, but clutches were problematic. Head is a 2011 and sees roughly 1,000 acres of corn a year. Was completely rebuilt due to the clutch losses and wear about 4 years ago? That bill was over $50,000, but done in a dealer shop and I don't know what all was done, but I believe it was clutches, chains, rolls, and possibly some other gearbox work and replacement knives.
In the field I felt the JD head was superior at everything except for when those clutches broke and started leaving strips. But they seemed to keep ears in the head better and I don't have near the volunteer corn growing the next year I did when running the Geringhoff.
Never had a Drago, but they have a good reputation on here and I know only 1 guy around here who runs them. I don't even know who sells them close. I would look closer at them if I ever combine my own corn again and knew where I would need to go to get parts.
Capello isn't here either that I'm aware of. A lot of the green combines have the JD cornhead here. | |
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Mechanic friendly chopping head?
