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"Cornstack Special" Newest Baler On The Market
After he started custom baling corn stalks in 1995, Eric Woodford started looking for a better way to pick up the bulky crop material. He came up with a power-driven rotor - called a windguard - that helps feed residue into a baler. It worked so well, Vermeer Corporation licensed the patented invention from him.
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"Cornstack Special" Newest Baler On The Market BALERS Balers 32-5-18 After he started custom baling corn stalks in 1995, Eric Woodford started looking for a better way to pick up the bulky crop material. He came up with a power-driven rotor - called a windguard - that helps feed residue into a baler. It worked so well, Vermeer Corporation licensed the patented invention from him.
This fall Woodford and his crew will operate four new Vermeer 605 Super M Cornstalk Special balers - based on the prototype Woodford presented to Vermeer two years ago.
"Cornstalks have a different texture and consistency," Woodford says. "They don't bind together in a windrow like hay. They tend to tumble in front of the pickup."
His hydraulically-driven powered rotor mounts above the pickup assembly and kicks the stalks up. Star-shaped plates that mount onto a hex shaft feed high volumes of corn stalks into the baler. The power rotor reverses if material starts to plug.
With the Cornstalk Special, operators won't have a lot of plugging as they did with older balers, Woodford says. And they will be pleased at how much faster they can bale residue. The Redwood Falls, Minn., farmer said he went to Vermeer because baling cornstalks requires heavy-duty equipment and Vermeer builds that type of equipment.
Vermeer's new baler comes with two windguard rotors - one for corn stalks and one for hay. Operators can remove and exchange the units in less than half an hour. The new corn stalk rotor doesn't work on older Super M balers.
"The timing was perfect for this baler," says Dan Belzer, advertising manager for Vermeer. "We've seen an increase in corn stalk baling. Eric had a fantastic solution. As a producer he knows what's needed in the field."
When Woodford started custom-baling cornstalks they were primarily used for bedding, but many farmers now mix them with ethanol byproducts for livestock feed.
With so much interest in renewable energy, Woodford believes the baler could play an important role in the cellulose ethanol industry.
The Cornstalk Special sells for $53,655.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Vermeer Corporation, P.O. Box 200, Pella, Iowa 50219 (ph 800 370-3659; www.vermeer ag.com).
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