Header-Mounted Tool Tills As You Harvest

Header-Mounted Tool Tills As You Harvest COMBINES Headers The Rezidue Reaper tills the root ball zone while harvesting corn Mounted to the header it reduces tillage passes and extends tire and track life That cuts fuel labor and maintenance costs while speeding residue breakdown The concept was born in a combine cab and came to life in a farm shop with a company forming at the kitchen table In the past year it went from prototype to taking orders for delivery in 2025     “The idea came to me about four years ago as I ran a combine ” says Tanner Schoff Sharp Harvest “My grandfather has operated a custom combining business for the past 60 years and as a result I spend a lot of time in a combine thinking about how to be more efficient ”     For Schoff that included how to handle residue His father embraced strip tillage about 25 years ago with cultivation restricted to between the previous year’s rows     “I felt there had to be a better way to manage stalks ” says Schoff “Between combining and strip tillage the idea was born ”     Before making his first prototype Schoff and his family developed a business plan They began building row units refining them as they went Each row unit attaches to the corn head where stalk stompers typically go Remove four nuts and the stalk-stomper and replace it with the Rezidue Reaper     A five-position pin adjusts the coulter height to header height preference while slots in the bracket let the coulter slide left and right for optimal row alignment Schoff estimates that installing each row unit takes about 10 min     The 55-lb row units consist of a spring-loaded arm with a rolling coulter designed to absorb typical impacts from rocks For larger impacts a shear pin in the arm is engineered to break protecting the header from excessive loads The 15-in blade creates a 4 1/2-in wide footprint Schoff explains that the wide footprint ensures slicing through stalks stubble and the root ball zone even if operating on a sidehill or if GPS drift occurs     This was the first fall the Schoffs ran a full set on their combine header Everything worked as expected and by the end of the year they began taking orders     “We’ve partnered with a machine shop to build the row units and we’ll handle shipping ” says Schoff “We’re offering a 20 percent discount on orders through the end of January ”     Row units are priced at $1 495 but with the discount they’re reduced to $1 196 Initially row units are only supported for 2012 and newer John Deere corn heads     “Support for other makes and models will be coming soon ” says Schoff “While I came up with the idea to fit our strip-tilling the Rezidue Reaper works great with any farming method whether conventional conservation or no-till ”     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Sharp Harvest 27261 1300 East St Walnut Ill 61376 ph 779-239-1446; www sharpharvest com

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