The time has come for a corn head upgrade. We ran our John Deere 612C for seven seasons, and for the last few years we’ve have some gearbox issues including replacing a couple of them for a hefty parts bill. A new 712FC late in 2019, and now it’s here from the factory near the end of March 2020. We won’t put it on the combine just yet as we’ve got some other things happening on the farm, but don’t worry you will see it in action this fall for sure!
Why a Folding Corn Head?
The decision to go with our first folding corn head over a traditional rigid head involved not just the convenience of folding up between fields rather than trailering the head. We also considered future pricing when it’s time to purchase another head beyond this one. I have a hunch heads this size and larger are going to retain more value if they fold.
I see more and more folding heads recently so I think the larger rigid used market is probably going to get dinged as time goes on. We saw similar circumstances when we bought our first draper for harvesting soybeans. At the time of the draper purchase our 635F platform was just two years old, but drapers were getting hot. The trade value for our platform netted us just half the price we paid for it brand new two seasons previous. Rigid corn heads may not get hurt that badly by the folding market, but I believe there will be some loss of value as folding becomes the most popular option.
Of course, the convenience of a folding corn head factors in our choice. I think we will find ourselves jumping around to nearby fields of waxy corn to harvest border rows now that we can move the combine without removing the head. Borders waxy corn fields need to be separated if a field lays next to another corn field.. This is to maintain the purity of product and avoid any cross pollination at the field edges. So now we can easily harvest the borders of a field, fold up, and hop over to the next field. Now the borders can all be done without multiple clean outs of equipment, and we won’t need a pickup truck and corn head trailer to tag along.
