Call Now
Email Us

12 INCH ROW UNITS

CUSTOM BUILT

BY FARMERS

LOOK INTO THE FACTORY

12 INCH FLEXIBILITY

“I CAN SHELL 4 MPH IN ANY DIRECTION I CHOOSE WITH HARDLY ANY HEAD LOSS”

“I’m a central Illinois farmer who participated in Stine Seeds twin 20 corn program this year. I was told a normal 20-inch corn head would work but quickly found out that I had huge feeding issues on my Gleaner corn head. Marion Calmer helped me try everything but nothing we tried seemed to work. After talking to Ladage Corn Head Sales in Auburn, Illinois, they suggested we try a Calmer 30 ft. 12-inch row width corn head and a JD S680 combine. I will be the first to say this combination works awesome and chews the stalks up great. I can shell 4 mph in any direction I choose with hardly any head loss what so ever. Wish I would of known this head would of worked as great is it is earlier. I would of had one modified for my Gleaner. You can be sure it will have a Calmer corn head on it next year. Thanks for all the help!”

– JD McTaggart, Pawnee, IL

“I was very impressed with Calmer Corn Heads’ 1615. We harvested our 15″ row corn at 20-28% with the 1615 in both standing corn and down corn conditions. The 1615 was able to minimize the losses of down corn by operating in a non-row sensitive manner and traveling at whatever angle was necessary for those conditions. The 1615 was also equipped with the Calmer BT Choppers that sized the heavy corn residue preparing the field for the following planting season.”

Randy Dowdy

Valdosta GA, 1st farmer in history to raise 500 bu/AC

FUNCTION IN CONCERT

PATENTED ENGINEERING FROM THE

FIRST TOUCH OF THE STALK

OEM PROBLEM

 No Feeding Chamber

Straight fluted stalk/knife rolls have too much overlap in the entry area. When rotating at normal speeds there is no entry window for the corn stalk from engaging easily with the flutes and causing early wear of the spiral and first 2-inches of flutes. This hesitation results in stalks and ears passing below the corn head without being processed, making the field look plucked, not picked.
No entry window makes it difficult for stalks to travel into the knife chamber and causes early wear on spirals and first 2″ on flutes.

Straight fluted inter-meshing stalk rolls result in a lack of stalk engagement.

CALMER SOLUTION

Patented Feeding Chamber

Calmer’s BT Choppers® are the only stalk rolls on the market with shortened flutes that are timed to create 2, 4-inch open window feeding chambers.  The feeding chamber moves the stalk into 10 razor sharp knives that chop, cut, and shear cornstalks into confetti for superior residue decomposition!

100% traction the first time a blade touches the stalk.

VIEW FULL TECH DISCUSSION

ANDY – SHOP FORMAN

talks about the Calmer Custom Experience

Calmer BUilt 12 inch rows

For the first time in the 2013 harvest at the direction of Stein Seeds and their research and development plots featuring the narrowest row corn.

 

The project started in 2012, when Stine® planted 2,300 acres of corn and 100 acres of soybeans in equidistant narrow rows at populations as high as 51,000 plants per acre.

Even with 2012’s drought conditions, the yield results were impressive. In areas with the best growing conditions, our corn yields consistently topped 300 bushels per acre. Those early results reaffirmed our belief that proper hybrid selection, allowing for more efficient utilization of space, will shape the future for higher corn yields.

Specialized Machinery for New Yield Results

In 2013, Stine went “all in,” and planted 100 percent of our 15,000 corn and soybean acres at the Stine® Farm near Adel, Iowa, in 12-inch rows. We used machinery customized for the effort, including modified Stine HP Twin 20 planters, custom-built corn heads, sprayers and special floatation tractor tires that operate with just five pounds of air pressure.

Though the results of this research were encouraging and the idea of 12-inch rows sparked much interest, we have always contended that row width is simply a means to an end; a process to allow us to reach the kind of planting populations we need to achieve maximum yields. We also knew that at some point we would likely need to go even narrower to reach our population goals.

The founder of the Stine Seed Company couldn’t find the labor to hand-thin his company’s corn test plots – a then-common practice in the 1970s. Forty years later, this accidental step, just like the others, is poised to revolutionize an industry.

STRATOSPHERIC SEEDING RATES

Stine Seed Company in Adel, Iowa, is planting corn in stratospheric corn populations in increments from 45,000 to 60,000 plants per acre – roughly a 25% to 50% hike above current populations – and in a more equidistant manner in a system called twin-row 20-inch spacings.

Just by themselves, Stine tests show the more equidistant spacing raises yields an average 3% to 9%. That’s just the start, though. Matching the right high-population hybrid with the right field could pick up another 5% to 12% in yields.

Meanwhile, proper fertility, including regularly scheduled N applications, can boost yields another 10% to 20%.

“This is really taking an agronomic system to the next plateau,” says Jerry Hatfield, director of the USDA’s National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, Iowa.