Chopping corn in Canada...

Hi followers, 

the last week I have spent in Kanada. Together with our dealer Noblefort Equipment from Nobleford in Alberta, we visited several customers, talked about the new MAN Generation and could exchange a lot of experiences. A very interesting week. Because of the first frost the week before, the corn dried up very quickly and most of the customers were done chopping corn for the season. But not all of them. Because of the dry corn, the customer chopped with 13 mm very short. Around Lethbridge are a lot of feedlots, like you can see on the pictures...

The last week I got used to Germany again. Our mid-sized rental car felt compared to my Tour-Truck very small. Right now I am back in Reno, where I packed my stuff the last days. Everything has an end and so is the "Meet the BiG MAN Tour 2011". Tomorrow I will fly back to Germany already. 

For the next week I got a little surprise for you. Some of you might know already. During my tour I had visiters from Germany several times. But more about that next week, so please check back later...

Regards from Reno,

Benedikt

An interesting week on the road…

Hi followers,

Last Monday I went from Boise in Idaho to Oregon. Along the Columbia River I drove about 500 miles to our dealership in Albany, south of Portland. Last week I ran several demos in conditions, which made me feel like home. Oregon is much more like Germany: Smaller fields, a lot of trees and rivers and a different climate. During the summer they got enough rain, so that they don’t need to irrigate to make farming possible. In the fall during the corn harvest, it is getting almost too wet. The same last week: Because of several rain showers, the trucks couldn’t go everywhere in the field. They were using dump boxes…

The same thing on the pit: Smaller piles and less horsepower. I was surprised about the length of cut, the farms want to see. Some customers have to take knives out and chopping with up to 36 mm. That put some demands on the KP…

Because of more rain, we couldn’t run any more demos. So end of the week, I moved over to Reno, driving for 11 hours and over 500 miles again. This post I am just writing in Canada. My collegue and me flew over to Edmonton in Alberta today. This week we are going to visit some customers and if the weather is cooperating, we might have a change to chop some Canadian corn. We will see…

 

Best regards from up north,

Benedikt

Corn, Rain and the first snow...

Hi followers, 

sorry for the late update of my tour. It's corn season in Idaho and it's busy. Because of the wet and late spring, the crops are about 3 weeks behind. And last week, the weather has really changed. You can feel, that the winter is coming. So the customers are under pressure to get it all done before the frost comes. The demos in Idaho have been very successful. The customers really liked the capacity of the BiG X 1100. You can get so much done in a short time compared to competitive machines. The yield has been very uneven this year. I chopped corn from 25 Tons/ac up to 35+ Ton/ac. On the pictures you can see, how dusty it is during chopping. That's why heavy duty wearliners in the chopper are so important...

 

Last week, we had some rain coming through and there was no chopping going on. I used that chance to visit the Yellowstone National Park. I picked the worst day in the week and because of rain and snow later in afternoon, I didn't get to see everything. Another reason, why I should come back...

Right now, I am on my way to Oregon. There are waiting the last acres of Corn to chop for the BiG MAN. I should start chopping on wednesday. They got rain right now, hopefully that changes...

Regards from The BiG MAN, 

Benedikt

1300 miles through Oregon and Washington

Hi followers,

like you know, I have moved to Washington State from California last weekend. This weekend and about 1300 miles more on the truck odometer, I am already back in Idaho. In Caldwell, ID.   I will spend this week to demo the BiG X 1100 and our trifold 12 row header Easy Collect 903. But first some more about the road trip through Oregon and Washington State…

The landscape in the west of the US is changing very often. Especially in Oregon! Driving through the desert, along mountains and pastures, forests, lakes and rivers. On the mountain plateaus farmers are growing grain on dry land. Going from Oregon to Washington you cross the Columbia River, which is the natural border line between the two states. Just behind the border, you have a very nice view on Mount Adams. But less words and more pictures…

The demos last week went very well. A highlight was to chop corn at a big dairy with about 41.000 cows. That farm was farming about 93.000 ac with corn and hay, grain, potatoes and vegetables. It was very impressive. Unfortunately I can’t show you any pictures about that. My camera is lying somewhere in a corn field in Washington. I have lost it. But a new one is bought already, so there are BiG X pictures coming next week.

On Saturday I prepared the BiG X 1100 for the coming week. The corn is not that tall than it is in California, but customers are talking about 35+ Ton/ac. We will see…

Regards from Idaho,

Benedikt

MAN Corn in Kronefornia,

Hi Followers,

Sorry, that you had to wait a little bit longer for news this time! The last two weeks in California has been busy and very successful. Like at the last round in the spring, I could run a lot of demos in the Central Valley in California. This time I showed the BiG X 850 and the BiG X 700 with our new trifold 10-row corn header Easy Collect 753. Most of the demos have been in the northern part of the Valley around Turlock and Modesto. 

Beside the demos, we had a very interesting field day in Modesto. This field day was organized by Mycogen Seeds and it was all around chopping quality and pit management. All the competitors have been around. We were there with the BiG X 850 and the EC 753. Approximately 180 people from University and Industry, Farmers and Contractors came to see the choppers running. For the comparison of chopping quality every forage harvester chopped one truck load each with different length of cut (longest chop, 19 mm, 16 mm and 13 mm) and a KP distance of 1.5 mm. The samples were investigated by the visitors at the pit. With shaker boxes, they defined the different particles of the sample. You could really see the difference! People really liked the consistency in the chop and the good processing of our BiG X 850. And that what Dairy Farmers in California want! After that, we had people waiting to fill a few truck loads with the BiG X and see the performance in corn. And the performance was impressive. In 15/16 feet tall corn, yielding 38 tons/ac, the customers were filling trucks in no time. 

This big corn in California is nothing special. The yields are averaging between 30 and 35 tons/ac. That’s really MAN Corn. The length of cut are mostly around 19 mm, reaching from 13 mm to 25 mm. More important for the farmers is the processing of the kernels. They don’t want to find a kernel and grind it up. That’s why the KP is so important around here. In the Krone choppers we are running chromed hard faced KP-rollers with 30 % speed differential. More surface and the speed difference allows to run with a wider gab and still getting the high processing. A wider gab follows in more performance. Good processing at high performance: That makes farmers and contractors happy. During the demos, the customers were really impressed about the high torque of the MAN-engines and the possibility to push it down to under 1300 RPM under load. It will recover easily! 

Customers liked the header. With the collector chains instead of turning drums it is much lighter than the competitive headers and needs less power to run it. It feeds the corn plants more consistent and leads to better chopping quality. Customers, who are running Krone headers on competive machines (The Easy Collect 6000 FP is available for John Deere, Claas and New Holland choppers) told me, that they could speed up to 1 mile/hour during chopping after changing to the Krone header! Again, better performance of the chopper!

Right now, I am on my way to Sunny Side, Washington, where I will run demos this week. I have heard, the corn is even taller than in California! I am excited…

Regards,

Benedikt