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EXPERIENCESpring 2014

Update on the INDEPENDENCESee how North Dakota farmers made it through a challenging growing season in 2013.

A Farm TransformedRead about how the Meier brothers have transformed their farm.

The Importance of Quality SnaplageDon Peters and his family talk about the importance of quality snaplage and how it affects milk production on their family dairy farm.

Every Kernel CountsTen things to consider for maximum grain retention.

www.Geringhoff.com

North Dakota farmers were still harvesting corn in late January and February.

Don PetersOwner and Operator of Peters Dairy Farm - Auburn, NY

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Experience is a publication of Geringhoff.For more information on the products featured in Experience please visit www.geringhoff.com. All materials copyright of Geringhoff. Trademarks of products are themarks of their respective manufacturers and/or distributors. Printed in the U.S. 12/13 Part# GP7000For reprint permission please contact:

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Anthony and Josh Meier have customized their farm machinery to try and keep things fun around the farm. Read more about how they have joined forces and transformed their farm, and their machinery.

Topics A Cold and Snowy INDEPENDENCE Harvest ...............Page 2A Farm Transformed .......................................................Page 5Show Listing .....................................................................Page 8The Importance of Quality Snaplage ..........................Page 9Grain Retention: Every Kernel Counts........................Page 13

Constantly ImprovingAs farmers, we are not strangers to a challenge. The North American corn crop continues to evolve and Geringhoff continues to evolve its harvest headers. Our 2014 Elite XL Series includes several new features and adjustments engineered to improve the performance of your combine and maximize the value of your harvested crop. The world is demanding ever increasing yields, which drives seed companies to make improvements to seed characteristics. As yields increase, stalks are definitely getting tougher, cobs are becoming more prone to shatter, and fierce winds and storms often lay hundreds of acres flat on the ground. These changes are putting exceptional demands on harvest headers, which drive us to continually evolve our machines. In this issue of the Geringhoff Experience, we talk to farmers who have put their heads through very tough conditions in North Dakota. They planted late in the spring and were harvesting late into January and February in several feet of snow. We also spoke with two brothers who have a unique way of making their farming business more fun. They have come up with different ways of motivating themselves, and have grown into a very successful farming operation. Speaking of successful operations, Peters Dairy Farm in Auburn, New York is in that same category. They have implemented a Geringhoff NorthStar 12 row 30” cornhead into their already successful dairy farm. They have streamlined their operation to feed their milk cows the most nutrient dense feed that, in turn, produces top quality milk. We’ve also included an article for you that talks about the top 10 ways for better grain retention. We understand that farming isn’t just a job, it’s a way of life.

Here’s to a great 2014.

Sincerely,

Your friends at Geringhoff

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orth Dakota is well known for being a colder than average state, but this year was even colder than the norm. Area

growers ran into challenging conditions throughout the entire 2013 year.

Farming Brothers

Kao and Tyler Grubb from Powers Lake, North Dakota have been farming for many years. Their great, great, great grandfather came over from Sweden and settled in Kenniston, ND where he began farming. Kao and Tyler’s great, great grandfather was born out on the farm in the early 1900’s. He ran the grain elevator and was also involved with the farm. Fast forward to the 1990’s when Kao started helping his grandfather on the farm. He and his younger brother Tyler now farm over

3,000 acres of land together. They have raised many different crops. “We grow spring wheat, durum, sunflowers, lentils, and now corn. We’ve grown a little bit of everything but those are our main crops. We’ve raised peas, we’ve raised canola, flax, a little bit of everything and now corn may be starting to become something,” said Tyler. Kao Grubb added, “The first field of corn that we seeded, was on the 10th of May. There was still snow in tree rows and on the hill sides. It was a little cold, but we decided that we were going to put it in and figured that when it warmed up enough it would take off, and thankfully it did. It took a while for it to come out of the ground though.”

Trying Something New

This was the first year the Grubb brothers would be planting corn, but that wasn’t the only thing unique about this year’s crop. They had done hours of research on planting corn, and decided to try something new altogether. According to Kao, “There’s some different equipment manufacturers and research that said row spacing didn’t matter, or the spacing between the plants didn’t matter as long as the plants came up at the same time and had even

emergence. There was a test done that had plants spaced out differently, but they all emerged evenly. Then they took those cobs and measured for bushels and compared them to plants that were spaced out evenly. They had just as good of a yield than those that were evenly planted.” They liked what they saw in their research, so they used the same planter that they used for their other crops, but modified different areas of it so that it would work for corn. Tyler added, “We run a New Holland cart with a conservapack hooked on to it. We did as much as we could there to randomize, it’s not like we just stuck normal rollers in, we did a little playing around with it. We tried to do as much as we could with an air seeder. We knew the emergence we could get from it. That was one of the reasons we used it too, it really shines in that category.” The Grubbs were happy with their decision to try something new. Now that they had figured out how to successfully plant a solid seeded field of

North Dakota farmers made it through a challenging growing season in 2013. Some even planted and harvested in snow.

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Pictured Above: Brothers Kao (Left) and Tyler (Right) Grubb in front of the Independence. They tested it in very challenging conditions near Kenmare, North Dakota.

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corn, the next step was figuring out how to harvest it. Kao said, “We figured we would just plant it and figure out how to harvest it later.” Kao laughed as he said, “It’s seeded, now what do we do?” After planting late, the weather cooperated pretty well for the most part. Rainfall was great this year for the majority of North Dakota. Where they ran into problems, however, was with the lack of heat. Tyler said, “We had lots of rainfall this year, but we didn’t get the heat. That was our biggest drawback on it. We missed out on a lot of heat where it was nice and cool and we got all the moisture, but the corn just needed the heat to mature.” It seemed that it was just going to be a tough growing season. One thing that helped them out was a late frost. “We didn’t get our first frost until the first of October, so that helped a lot. It was coming in immature and wet because we didn’t get much dry down after that. Even in November we were shelling it out and checking it and it was coming out at 25-30% or more. It finally got down to 19-22%,” said Kao. It was January and even though the moisture levels still weren’t down to where they would like them, it was time to figure out a way to get the

corn off the field. They had neighbors offering to help them out, but it wasn’t quite what they were looking for. “There were plenty of guys that were offering to just bring their cows in there and let them harvest it for you. They would say ‘It doesn’t look like you’re going to get out there, should we just open the gate and let our cows in and harvest it for you?’,” Kao said. It wasn’t the return on investment that they were hoping for. Time to get back and do some more research.

Enter the Independence

Kao and Tyler were continuing their research when they came across the Geringhoff website. Tyler said, “I think it was on Geringhoff’s website

that I stumbled across the Independence for the first time, and then we saw some videos on YouTube and saw how it worked. I just gave Geringhoff a call and they got me in touch with someone who could make it happen.” It turns out that this is exactly what the Independence was built for, so it was the perfect opportunity, for the Grubbs, and for Geringhoff, to test it out in extreme conditions. With the harvest being so late in the year (or early in the following year) the head wasn’t appearing at any shows during this time, or out at other farms for testing, so it worked out perfectly. Tyler, the operator of the combine, said, “I think the Independence is working great.

I don’t know if a guy could ask for anything better right now. Even in these conditions, it’s doing great in the solid seeded field, it’s not missing hardly anything.” In farming, people talk a lot about averages. Conditions are definitely nowhere close to average in North Dakota. Kao said, “Next year could be a totally different year all together. North Dakota is like that because, we’re in the extremes, we are nothing close to average. You take the extremes at one end and extremes on the other end and somewhere in between you find an average. It seems like we haven’t had an average year in a long time.”

2014 Outlook

The Grubb brothers are hoping to also be able to harvest with a Geringhoff in 2014, however, they know how difficult it is to get a trial with the Independence. With high demand and the amount of people wanting to test it out for Geringhoff, the line for trials keeps getting longer. With this being their first year planting corn, they know there are tricks to each kind of crop. With corn prices dropping in 2013, it’s a good opportunity for them to plant

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a smaller number of acres and learn about growing corn to get ready for when the prices go back up. “If the corn price was higher we would put more corn in. At these price levels I don’t know if it makes a lot of sense up here just to get the hang of it. When the price goes up we’ll be ready for it if it’s worth doing,” said Tyler. “We have seed bought for corn so we do plan on trying again next year. We have a little bit of a sour taste in our mouths right now because of the corn this year. We’ll dabble in it a little bit, probably plant fewer acres next year with the prices of corn this year. This year got to be a little long, so less headache next year.”

Another Winter Harvest

Travis Iglehart, who farms about 120 miles away from the Grubb brothers, also had a late harvest. “It seems to be pretty common to be harvesting at this time of year. We don’t have a dryer so we take the corn at 20% moisture and under to store it. This year the corn was wet late, so that’s why we’re out here now harvesting in March. It’s at 15.5 - 16% now. We are at about 130 bushels per acre. The snow doesn’t bother the head, we aren’t running any snow through it, just riding right on top of it.” Travis is used to harvesting this time of year, especially with sunflowers. They plant primarily sunflowers and have taken full advantage of the multi-crop adapters to turn the Geringhoff cornhead into a head that can be used for two crops. Rather than owning three heads for sunflowers and three heads for their corn, they instead own 3 Geringhoff heads that will harvest both crops. “We were able to use the passive knife on it to cut sunflowers, that was the reason we bought a Geringhoff. We wanted to eliminate having two row crop headers and just run one. Eliminate some equipment around the farm and

use the same header on one machine. Our Geringhoff is our primary head that we use. It cut the costs down a long way by eliminating equipment. Instead of running 6 headers we just have 3 now and we can cut multiple crops with it. There’s been no down time on it, we just grease it and change oil. Just normal maintenance on it.”

A Super Hero

Travis and his hired men use shields to protect the sunflowers from falling out of the head. They call them bat wings, so one of Travis’ hired men decided he would paint some batman logos on the so-called ‘Bat Wings’. Travis said, “When we cut sunflowers, we were always losing heads out the sides of the header, so we wanted to improve efficiency and make taller shields and we called them batwings, because they kind of look like batwings out there. One of my hired men, David, decided he would paint batman logos on there.” When riding in the cab with Travis, I also noticed a Captain America figure laying on the floor. I’m starting to notice a super hero theme to this farm! “I have a lot of kids riding with me and they need some toys to play with. My kids love coming out here and riding with me. They love the outdoors too and it’s nice having them out here. They like pushing all the buttons and turning the wheels. I hope my kids still have interest to take over the farm someday.” It’s great when your children

take interest in the things that you do, and even better when they can carry out your legacy when they grow up. Farming seems to be much more than just a job to most, it has been said before that farming is it’s own way of life. Travis said, “There’s always something different to do, and it doesn’t get boring like a regular job. It’s got it’s challenges like mother nature. You’ve just got to take what’s handed to you.”

Extra Coverage

As the Iglehart farm grew, so did the need for more equipment. They would add another Geringhoff head each year until they reached three total heads, all different years. While they haven’t had many issues with the heads, they were happy to see that Harvest Guard offered extended coverage for their heads. “The service has been outstanding. You guys have offered the extended warranty on these heads with Harvest Guard (www.HarvestGuard.com), so we are covered for another 5 years with these headers. I’m going to run these headers longer now, and it’s great that you guys stand behind your product. This is our 4th year on this one, and it’s nice to know that if something goes wrong, I’m going to have support and backup and if it’s something major it’s not going to cost me an arm and a leg to fix. I feel more comfortable running these older heads longer,” said Travis.

To share your experience, please emailexperience@geringhoff.com

Pictured Opposite: The Independence in a snowy field near Kenmare, ND.

Pictured Right: Travis Igelhart in front of his NorthStar 12 row 30” head near Garrison, ND. Travis uses the head for corn and sunflowers.

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nthony and Josh Meier have been farming since the late ‘90s. This dynamic duo didn’t start working together right

away, however. When they took over the farm from their father, Josh focused on the cattle side of things while Anthony handled raising the crops. They each had their own business and were making a living. This worked for a while, but they saw patterns in the market that told them that there just wasn’t as much money in cattle as there was in crops.

The Transformation

It’s been said many times that two heads are better than one. When you partner in business, opportunities arise. The amount of equipment you can purchase, the amount of land you can farm, and many other things that are easier with

a partner. After talking about joining forces, they decided that they would take the plunge and transform their two businesses, into one that was more powerful and profitable. They named their new business Devastator, after a transformer from the famous movies and cartoons. Devastator was a transformer that combined several different vehicles into one large super-robot. “Devastator is a decepticon from the transformers cartoon back in the ‘80s that is made up of construction equipment. A payloader, bulldozer, track hoe, crane, and a cement truck. It’s one that comes together to be a bigger entity that’s hard to defeat,” Josh said. It seemed like a great fit for the Meier brothers since that was their goal, to join forces and be a large entity that was tough to beat. Any tool you can use for motivation can give you the edge in business. Devastator seemed like it would be just that for the Meier brothers. Anthony said, “The name Devastator is like a mascot, you’ve got to have something that you work behind. It’s like a motivational technique. It’s unique. Whereas the names we were thinking about before were more common names that could easily be

mistaken for someone else’s.” They kept going with their theme and even created a logo for Devastator that could be applied to all their equipment. “Before we were separate, Josh was the cattle guy and I was the farm guy. We would help each other out. As farming gets more expensive and continues growing bigger, like much of the business world you need to merge and move forward, and that’s what we did,” said Anthony. As you can see in the photos, they also customized the side of their semi trailers. Anthony designed a “Get Some” graphic for the side of the trailer to make

The Meier Brothers have transformed their farm from two individual entities into a single more profitable operation.

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Pictured Top: Anthony (Left) and Josh (Right) in front of a graphic they made for the side of their trailer that looks like graffiti.

Pictured Bottom: A custom made Devastator graphic for the back of their semi.

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it their own. It’s little things like this that make farming feel less like work and more like fun.

More Land

Now that they had joined forces, they could begin farming as a team. Josh would handle the role of running the equipment to plant and harvest, while Anthony would play a support role by hauling in fertilizer and seed during planting, and unloading and trucking during harvesting. He also would be

responsible for making sure they always had enough fuel. They live near Aberdeen, South Dakota, and now farm over 6,000 acres growing corn back to corn. Recently, they decided to expand their operation into the western side of South Dakota as well. The climate is slightly different out there, so it would work out quite well with their current schedule to plant a rotation of wheat and sunflowers during their down time from corn. They saw an ad for land in the paper, and rented over 1,000 acres next to the Badlands of South Dakota. Josh said, “This land was advertised in the Farm Forum, and we were already

living near Rapid City part time and we thought it would be profitable to farm in two different areas. It’s by the Black Hills. It’s kind of a nice spot, you can see Mount Rushmore from here, and it’s only 20 miles away.” “This is a different climate and a different time frame for harvesting than we’re used to so we called on the ad and made a deal with the people. We’ve been out here for 3 years. We’ve planted sunflowers and now we’re planting spring wheat.” With average rainfalls around only 16 inches per year,

the conditions were better suited for sunflowers and spring wheat.

Priorities

With more crops comes more equipment. The Meier brothers don’t have any full time employees. They do as much of the work they can themselves, allowing them to invest more money into having quality equipment. “We farm all over but we don’t have employees. The employees are the equipment, so we invest into equipment,” said Anthony. “So when we buy something it has to be perfect.” Josh added, “Our ‘employees’ are

compensated well. We try to keep them new so we don’t have trouble.” The Meiers have had a Geringhoff cornhead since 2007. They have farmed with a 16 row Rota Disc for several years, and recently purchased a brand new 2013 Rota Disc Elite Series.

Transforming Their Geringhoff

When they began planting sunflowers, they were ecstatic to see that Geringhoff manufactured their own set of adapters to transform a Rota Disc cornhead, into

a shredding sunflower harvester. Anthony said, “Corn is our primary crop and we build around that. Generally it’s not an option, but Geringhoff had the foresight to think about how this would benefit customers. Sunflowers are more of a side crop for most people where we live, so it was nice to have the option to purchase something for corn and then have it transform into a sunflower head.” “It opened us up to planting other crops. With sunflowers, you can plant into the end of June so it gives you flexibility. It’s very rare for a company that builds something, to also build their own attachment. Usually that’s a different company that takes that niche

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and fills it, whereas Geringhoff saw that need and met it.” “When we decided to purchase the sunflower option, we didn’t know what to expect. We came out and we had 1,000 acres of sunflowers to harvest. It took us about 8 hours to bolt the kits on.” Josh said, “They’re easy to install. The head has spring loaded chain tensioners, so you just whip the chains on and off, slide a piece of metal in there and a piece of plastic and you’re ready to go.” They were a little leary about using an inexpensive attachment versus spending such a large amount of money on a sunflower head. It seemed too good to be true that they would save all of that money and it would still work like it should.

Anthony said, “Now that we’ve bought them, put them on and experienced harvesting with them, they work every bit as good as a regular head, which is unbelievable. When you buy something that is an attachment, you don’t expect top performance, you expect a compromise. In this case, it’s just a compliment to the head. They built a piece specifically for their head. They engineered it and it works, I was shocked and blown away. When we came out here and started combining the sunflowers with our Geringhoff head, we thought, ‘Wow, that’s awesome.’ It over-delivers. It even shreds the stalks!”

Sweeper

After having end row augers on their last Geringhoff, they didn’t want to be without them on their new head. They also added the Geringhoff ICF Sweeper to their 2013 Rota Disc Elite. This was their first year with a sweeper but so far it’s been working very well in both corn and sunflowers. Josh said, “It helps a lot in flowers because you can help deflect the sunflowers in if you have to get some really short ones, it brings them in a lot easier. The corn, this last year especially when the dew would wear off, the fluff was really bad. I would start the day with the sweeper up in the air, but then

When we came out here and started combining the sunflowers with our Geringhoff head, we thought, ‘Wow, that’s awesome.’ It over-delivers. - Anthony Meier

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Pictured Left: Josh (Left) & Anthony (Right) in front of the Devastator graphic they designed for the side of their semis.

Pictured Above: A close up of the sunflower stationary knife on their Geringhoff Rota Disc.

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later in the morning have to put it down or else I’d have to slow down by 2 miles per hour. Normally we combine 100 bushel corn at about 4 or 5 mph. We’d be down to about 3 mph without the sweeper.” Anthony said, “Last year we had unhealthy corn, so the corn died and

the leaves stuck on the plant and didn’t fall. That’s just another obstacle. You buy this big bad combine to combine in any conditions, and then you limit yourself on the head if you don’t have a good quality head. In all harvesting capacities, you need something to grab a hold and push the crop in sometimes,

it only makes sense to have the sweeper. There’s always something that might happen where you need to feed it in better, when I first saw that sweeper, I thought, ‘How often are you really going to need it?’, but once you have it, you really use it for more than you’d think.” “I thought it was just for down corn, but it’s not, it’s for helping to feed the corn. You wouldn’t think it would help, but it does. Even if it’s a half a mile an hour, replicate that over a 14 or 15 hour day, and that’s pretty substantial. The sweeper is one of those things you don’t think about and don’t think you’ll ever need or use, but then when you have it, you wonder why you haven’t always had one. It’s like having thumbs or something like that, it’s just another dimension to harvesting. So why wouldn’t you?” Josh added, “In the flowers, you can get the heads hanging over the sides so it can bring them back into the head. You can do it without it, but the ICF Sweeper and Geringhoff just make harvesting a lot easier.”

To share your experience, please emailexperience@geringhoff.com

There is no better way to get a feel for Geringhoff’s legendary quality than to see it in person. Geringhoff attends industry leading farm shows in over 20 states, so chances are there is a show near you. Stop by and speak with our knowledgeable sales team and Geringhoff service reps.

2014 Summer Farm Show ScheduleFarmfest August 5-7 Redwood Falls, MNEmpire Farm Days August 5-7 Seneca Falls, NYAg Progress Days August 12-14 State College, PAWisconsin Farm Tech August 12-14 Stevens Point, WIDakotafest August 19-21 Mitchell, SDFarm Progress Show August 26-28 Boone, IAHusker Harvest Days September 9-11 Grand Island, NEBig Iron September 9-11 West Fargo, NDOhio Farm Science Review September 16-18 London, OH

Geringhoff Farm Show Schedule

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hen farmers talk about their Geringhoff cornhead, it’s generally being used for grain

crops on the front of a combine. Peters Dairy Farm in Auburn, New York has a different application for their Geringhoff 12 row 30” NorthStar. They have mounted it to the front of their Claas self-propelled forage harvester, and are using this unique combination to harvest snaplage silage to feed their cattle.

Family Farm

Don Peters’ grandparents came up to Auburn from Sullivan County, NY in 1951. His grandfather retired in 1980 and his father, along with his two uncles, took over the family dairy farm. Since

then, Don has bought one uncle out, and his father is a silent partner. Don now runs the farm with his wife, Lisa, his two sons Don II and Nick, and his brother-in-law Dave O’Hara. All together, they farm 1,400 acres of corn, 1,000 acres of hay, milk 700 head of cattle with about 83 lbs/cow for production. They like to provide as much as they can for their cattle. This way, they know what type of ingredients are going into the feed, and they know how to replicate good results. They are able provide everything for their cattle themselves, with the exception of the protein mix. The whole family is involved with the farm. Don is the main owner/manager. Lisa takes care of the book work and the calves. Don II and Nick have many duties around the farm as well. Lisa said, “Everybody does what they have to do.” Nick said “I spray, along with running the chopper. If someone doesn’t show up I have to go. I’m also in charge of our social media on facebook.” Don II said, “I take care of all the heifers. All the breeding and the herd checks with the heifers and for the forage end of it, I set the pace, I do all the mowing and I also run the fertilizer program here too. Pretty much what

everyone else does, when it’s time to go it’s time to go.” Dave is the herdsman and takes care of the cattle.

Harvesting with a Combine

Before they were able to mount their Geringhoff head to a chopper, they were running a combine and then processing the corn through their chopper after it was all harvested. Dave said, “Well we used to have a combine. We used to combine the corn, then bring it home, grind it, process it, which we would use the chopper for that, auger into that and either blow it in the silo or blow it in the bunk and pack it and cover it.” Don added, “We made a hopper for the chopper and would run the corn through there.” Needless to say, this was quite the time-consuming process. They knew there had to be a better, more efficient way of harvesting snaplage. They checked into getting a Geringhoff and mounting it to their silage chopper, but they couldn’t find an adapter that would fit. They were getting discouraged about the whole process, until they visited the Geringhoff booth at the Syracuse Farm show and were able to find some help. Don said, “Nobody else offered it. We

Peters Dairy Farm has taken steps to make sure they feed their cattle with the most nutrient dense crop, in the most efficient way possible.

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The Importance ofQuality Snaplage

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were 6 months in getting this thing built. We didn’t think it was going to happen until we came to see Erik at the farm show and he said, ‘Why not just put the older style international throat on it.’ We had to use the Kooima adapter to accept the folding head.” This seemed like the perfect solution, and with a little determination, they were able to get everything to work out great for them. Dave said, “Because the drive comes out parallel to the feeder house where a combine runs perpendicular, we had to make the transition from a combine drive to a chopper style drive.” Erik Quanbeck, the National Sales Manager for Geringhoff, commented “We worked with Kooima who makes an adapter that allows you to use a corn head originally designed for a combine on a forage harvester. It’s a powered adapter so that it does a really good job of transitioning the corn from the header to the chopper. You have to remember with a forage harvester, normally when they are taking corn they are taking the whole plant. So the Geringhoff NorthStar is actually stripping that ear off and taking it into the chopper where it goes through the kernel processor, and through the machine. The adapter allows the hookup of the corn head to the chopper and of course you have to hook your power components, hydraulic components, and electrical for header height control but it makes a pretty easy transition by using that adapter.” This has saved the Peters family a great deal of time and money. Rather than harvest the corn with a combine and then run it through the chopper afterwards, they cut out the $350,000

machine that was in the middle, and now they are able to go straight from the field, through the chopper, and into the silage bunk. Mobility is Key

Their corn crop is spread out over at least 20 different fields, so the folding feature was one of the most important features that they were looking for in a cornhead. Dave said, “Because with the combine we used to have to drop the head, and that was an 8 row. Most places you had to take the head off to go down the road. It doesn’t take long but it adds up, especially if you are doing that 2 to 3 times a day. To be able to not have to take the head off, and just fold it up and move it to the next place.” Don added, “Stow and Go!” This also came in handy when they wanted to harvest snaplage in the morning, and silage or haylage in the afternoon. “Last year when we ran out of feed, we were doing corn silage and snaplage at the same time because we were out of everything. So we would chop a load or two of corn silage in the morning, take the corn head off, 5 minutes time you can switch heads and do a load of snaplage. It’s really slick, as fast as you can switch heads,” Dave said. Nick commented, “The folding feature made it faster. You go and you don’t have to drop the head on a trailer and trailer the head. It saves the guy that

has to run the truck back and forth from field to field to field.”

Timing is Everything

When the conditions are right for any crop, you need to be able to get it off the field as soon as possible. Don said, “When alfalfa is ready to go, we go. Four days, boom we’re done. We have the past 2 years, none of it’s gotten rained on, it’s 1, 2, 3, 4 days and we’re covered.” Dave added, “200 acres a day and we go about 800 acres and we’re done. It’s all put in the best it can be, put in quick and packed and covered.” Cows benefit much more from a crop that is harvested in optimal conditions. Harvesting too early or too late will have a negative effect on the nutrition the cows receive. This, in turn, greatly affects the milk the cows produce. So what’s the secret? Don said, “People ask me how we do it, and you’ve got to spend about 4 million bucks to get the iron to do it, that’s how

Pictured Below: The Geringhoff NorthStar Elite on the chopper, in front of the last of their snaplage.

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it works…really. You’re looking at your mower packages, you’ve got 2 of them at $80,000 a piece, the merger is $150,000, the chopper is $650,000. But that’s how you make milk. You’ve got to have a lot of decent trucks. People don’t realize how important that is for making milk. We went to a meeting and they had a guy there from the Minor Institute. He said that time after time, the tests have proven, once you fail or lose on your forages, you can’t make it up, you can’t make it up with protein.” Dave added, “There’s no amount of grain you can feed that will make up what you lost.” Lisa said, “Our goal is efficiency. You’ve got to be able to go when you can go. And that’s why we have so much equipment. That’s why our equipment is so big, so we can go fast and make sure it’s the highest quality. If the hay and corn get rained on, or if the corn is too dry, we lose butterfat. The reason we have good nutrients in our feed is because we harvest it fast when it’s ready. We do good quality feed here.” Don said, “The problem with the combine is, when you’re in 25% or better corn, there’s no way to minimize your grain loss. We’ve tried everything to slow it down and you still kick corn out the back.” Dave added, “Grain moisture was about 35%, total crop moisture was about 45%. You actually have more, it saves on corn silage and your forages because it’s a bulkier feed, so you end up feeding less forage to get the same amount into the cow. So in years that you might actually be tight on feed, it actually helps you.” “You handle it just the same as corn silage, just push it in, pack it and

cover it and it’s worked really well. Spoilage is almost nill. There’s less spoilage than there is on corn silage. We looked at it yesterday and it looks good, and that’s the end of the pile.” With the chopper, moisture was

no longer a factor. “We weren’t limited by the moisture. For the combine you should be under 25%, and you might be waiting until November for it to dry down that much. Now when the corn gets down to 35 you just go. You don’t switch in fields if one’s a little wetter or a little dryer, it doesn’t matter you just keep doing. It doesn’t seem to be an issue with storage and the way it feeds. Once it gets mixed in the bunk it’s all pretty consistent anyway,” said Dave.

Nutrition

“In the silo when you put the high moisture corn in, you might have 35%, 25%, 20%, it’s all different changing throughout the silo whereas the bunk, you’re taking it right off the face of it and you’re getting a little bit of every layer all the way up through it so it’s

a lot more consistent. Our nutritionist hasn’t run into any of it that he hasn’t been happy with,” said Dave. With the additional fiber in the snaplage, they were able to cut out some of the chopped hay. Surprisingly in return, their butterfat actually increased. They also will only have 3-4 DA’s a year. For those of you not familiar with dairy farms and what a DA is, it stands for displaced abomasum, and is very bad for cows. A DA will cause the cow’s stomach to twist and cuts off the cow’s intestine. Since they have their nutrition in good working order, they have greatly reduced the amount of DAs that they have been having as well. They used to feed hay in the diet for butter fat. However, with a lot more fiber content in the snaplage, they were able to eliminate the hay. They have a high production group and a low production group. The dairy cows are the only ones that get the snaplage, the dry cows and heifers get the chopped hay, corn silage, mineral package, and some canola. Other than the protein, they buy the canola and dairy mix, but all the forages are produced right there on their farm. Dave said, “If it was chopped coarse, you’d get some sorting, not too

Pictured Left: A sample of snaplage from their bunk mixture.

Picture below: The NorthStar on the chopper in front of their commodity shed.

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bad most of the time. We pushed in feed 5 to 6 times a day. With the snaplage you don’t get hardly any sorting at all. It’s such a high forage diet. The canola and protein mix is ground so fine it’s almost like they can’t sort it. I think that’s a major factor in the butterfat and almost no DA’s. It definitely makes a healthier herd.”

Milking Parlor

Peters farm milks their 700 cows three times a day through a Double 8 flat barn

parlor. The ration is about 52-55 lbs of corn silage, 33 lbs of haylage, 17 lbs of snaplage, 7 lbs of protein mix and 7 lbs of canola so it’s 14 lbs total of protein. They also run 2 Knight commercial reel mixers. Dave said, “It’s efficient and it’s cheap, and it milks a lot of cows quick. We replaced the whole parlor 3 years ago. All of the stalls were getting pretty worn out. Everything bolted together and you can replace one stall at a time. We went in between milkings and in three days we replaced all the stalls, so now we’ve got all new stalls in there. If you had a herring bone parlor or a parallel parlor, to replace one of them is a major project. To milk 700 cows 3 times a day, you’d probably have to have

a double 12 to a double 16 in a herring bone or parallel to get the same amount of cows in the same amount of time. We can milk everything in under 6 hours, that’s walking in the door and walking out, so it’s pretty quick. Then we’ve got 2 hours of downtime in between for any repairs or maintenance.”

The Future of Peters Dairy Farm

When the time comes for Don to step down as the owner of Peters Dairy Farms, Nick and his brother Don plan on taking over the farm along with Don’s brother in law, Dave. Nick said, “I plan on stepping up and taking over the farm someday. My brother likes the dairy side of it and I like the field side of things.” Don II added, “Eventually it will be my brother and I, and probably at some point Dave too. Nick will be the crop end of it. We’re actually talking about expanding too so we’ll be that much deeper into the dairy end of it. There’s actually been talk of another dairy complex. That’s kind of what we’re working on now is building the land base up a little more. Once we get the land base established a little better we’ll take the next step. I’m 25 and I’ve been doing this my whole life. It’s a way of life, it really is.”

Pictured Top: One of Lisa’s jobs is to take care of the calves.

Pictured below: The milking parlor that milks 2,100 cows per day.

To share your experience, please emailexperience@geringhoff.com

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Grain Retention:Every Kernel Counts

I10 steps to help you put more bushels in the bin

ncreased yields and extreme harvests demand efficient crop flow and exceptional grain retention to maximize profits.

We’re continuously improving our harvesting method. With industry leading grain retention, and reduced bounce and shatter at higher harvesting speeds, we work hard to set the standards by which other cornheads are measured. Here is a look at a few of the upgrades we’ve made to our Elite XL series, along with some simple steps you can take to get the most from your equipment at harvest time.

1. Deck Plate Spacing

Proper spacing of the deck plates is necessary to reduce the risk of butt shelling and cob loss during harvest, and is something you can easily monitor from your combine. Ideally, the deck plate spacing will allow the stalk to pass through freely while snapping the ear from the stalk at the “butt” of the ear.Deck plates that are too narrowly spaced may lead to more stalk material entering the combine, while wider spacing may cause smaller ears to drop below the deck plates, increasing loss. If you see butt shelling, your deck plates may be set too wide for your current ear size and could be catching the “shoulder” of the ear instead of the “butt.” Observation is key, and you’ll have to adjust your deck plates frequently as your harvesting conditions change.Refer to your operator’s manual to determine correct settings for your cornhead and combine.

2. Header Speed

Crop conditions, moisture levels and corn varieties can vary from field to

field, so it’s critical that you can adjust your harvesting approach quickly, to meet these variable conditions. Because Geringhoff allows the combine operator to monitor true header speed, it is possible to make quick adjustments to your header speed to meet harvest conditions. Matching header speed to ground speed can make a huge impact on reducing header losses.

3. Stalk Rolls

Make sure your stalk rolls are adjusted correctly and are sharp enough to grab the stalk and pull it to the deck plates without slipping. NorthStar knife rolls should have a 1-2 mm clearance at the front of the row unit for easy entry and .5 mm at the rear. This will provide the correct “snapping” action while processing the stalk material effectively.Geringhoff uses high grade, self-sharpening components to extend the life and efficiency of the stalk rolls and cutting discs, but over time these parts will wear and become less efficient.Take time to inspect your stalk rolls and cutting components for routine wear, to ensure you are getting optimal performance at harvest.

4. Chain Guide Adjustment

Geringhoff row units allow the operator to adjust the position of the gathering chain guides in a narrow position where the lugs will overlap (most aggressive) or in a wide position (normal operation). In good standing corn, the guides should be in the wide position to allow the stalks to reach the rolls before coming in contact with the chain lugs. In a “down” corn situation, the chain guides should

be moved to their more aggressive, narrow position. These adjustment options are outlined in the Geringhoff Owner’s Manual.

5. Row Unit Height

In high yield corn, a staggering volume of plant material is processed by your cornhead. Maintaining optimal crop flow is a constant challenge, and is something we’re constantly monitoring with our field specialists. Our Elite XL cornheads feature row units that are positioned slightly higher than previous models, which is an adjustment we’ve made to create a more aggressive pitch into the auger trough, to optimize crop flow in high density corn. This adjustment also increases auger trough volume by approximately 20% to handle high yielding crops.

6. Wrapping Issues

BT corn genetics produce thicker stalks, taller plants and increase the sheer volume of fodder you have to process during harvest. These factors can increase the frequency of plants (and weeds) wrapping around your auger. If left unchecked, these wrapping issues can cause crop flow restrictions and

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grain loss. To prevent wrapping, we’ve designed an adjustable stripper plate for the Elite XL that runs the length of the auger trough, and can be adjusted to within millimeters of your auger. As a result, you’ll experience improved crop flow, and a cleaner auger. This modification transitions your crop smoothly into the feederhouse and maximizes grain retention.

7. Moisture

Harvest timing can be one of the biggest challenges for corn growers given the demands of weather, variation in hybrid characteristics, and grain handling capabilities. Picking the right time to harvest, based on your corn’s moisture content can have a big impact on yield retention. Corn with approximately 20% moisture content at the time of harvest shows higher yield retention as compared to corn that falls below this moisture content. While fuel costs and labor involved in drying corn down from higher moisture levels is a consideration, you may notice that these costs are recovered due to less field loss, and kernel damage during harvest. Research indicates that corn harvested below 20% will have a higher degree of broken kernels. Broken kernels are the primary cause of poor

grain quality. Damaged shelled corn also deteriorates three times faster than undamaged corn, so it’s important to harvest corn at the optimal balance between low enough moisture to not cause kernel damage, and increased fuel costs associated with drying your crop.While not as immediately apparent as grain loss in the field, waiting too long to harvest may present a more subtle form of grain loss, due to damaged kernels, increased risk of kernel mold, and other damage that renders your crop less valuable. Reviewing these inputs are good practice toward maximizing profitability in your operation, and are considerations that deserve your attention, and experimentation.

8. Boiling

In extreme yields, the sheer volume of grain moving through the auger trough can create a “boiling” effect in front of the feeder house. To assist with yield retention during grain transfer, we’ve added a splash plate to the Elite XL in order to reduce opportunities for the crop to escape when back feeding occurs at the feederhouse. The addition of the splash plate captures much of the grain that could otherwise be lost, should the feeder house throw ears forward.

9. Smooth Crop Transition

By modifying our Elite XL cover plate design, crops are less likely to shatter. We’ve created a seamless transition from deck plates to auger trough that allow crops to quickly enter the auger trough and flow smoothly to the feederhouse, resulting in improved kernel retention in high-yielding conditions.

10. Keep Your Separator Full

Combines perform more efficiently when the separator is kept full. Is your harvest header delivering a sufficient volume of crop to the combine? Many of todays larger capacity combines have throughput demands, well in excess of what the traditional 12 row header might be able to provide. Many combine operators recognize this and increase their ground speed in attempt to keep the combine full. This increased speed often results in increased shatter and bounce, excess fuel consumption, a rough harvest for the combine and a lot of stress on the driver. The best strategy might be to invest in a larger 16, 18 or 24 row head.

To share your experience, please emailexperience@geringhoff.com

3405 Energy Dr.Saint Cloud, MN 56304