harvesting 30 inch corn with 36 inch head

pullinghounddog · Aug 16, 2014

Anyone ever chop 30 inch corn with 2 a row 36 inch head? There is an old deere 3800 I'm looking at as a spare. I have no experience with deere harvesters we have only used nh 718 choppers in my lifetime. It's priced right and the corn did very well this year so I think it would stand a little bending. Just curious for feedback from those who have tried.corn equipment is in short supply around here otherwise I would look for the correct head.

806Jr · Aug 16, 2014

We did it for a couple years and it worked ok. We ran the head a little higher to help it bend and we also drove the tractor a little slower.

casecollectorsc · Aug 16, 2014

Use to cut 30" rows with a wide row 718 NH. Had to watch what you were doing but worked okay.

S J P · Aug 16, 2014

Had a NH 890 with 2 row wide head. It worked fine on 30" rows but did require more repairs to keep it going.

pullinghounddog · Aug 16, 2014

Thanks for the info. After a trip to the dealer it looks like you can adjust some of the deere heads a couple inches although I don't know if this one will. I think it will work well enough for a spare then. The 718 is so worn out and the corn so tall if it's workable she's coming home to meet the parents!

LonM · Aug 16, 2014

I do not think it would work very well. We run a 2 row wide JD head on a 3960 chopper, and you have to be right on the rows for it to feed right, otherwise the stalks just get knocked down and out of reach of the gathering belts. I think the NH heads were better at grabbing the stalks if you were off a little, I think their gathering chain setup was more forgiving than what the JD heads had.

RodinNS · Aug 16, 2014

There may or may not be adjustment on the head. I don't know. What I do know about Deere belt heads is that they MUST be on the row or you're just wasting your time and crop.

Rod

David from Kansas · Aug 17, 2014

Did it years ago. Guy had corn crop that didn't produce grain because of drought. Told him it would probably be a little ragged but he said to get what we could. Really had to stay on the rows; not an inch to spare. Was a JD 38 with 38" two row. Cut it a little high and worked better that way. Never saw a JD row head of that era that was adjustable. Also, I think they were either 30" or 38", not 36". We did custom harvesting with that 38 model and it was a terrific improvement over the old heads with steel gathering chains. Cut some sorghum once which was over 15' tall. Also some sorghum that was laying down and tangled. It was slow but it walked right through it with rarely a plug-up.

harvesting 30 inch corn with 36 inch head

pullinghounddog

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806Jr

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casecollectorsc

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S J P

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pullinghounddog

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LonM

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RodinNS

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David from Kansas

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