Wheat and small grain farmers can try growing corn without buying an expensive cornhead. Flexxifinger Corn Harvest Pans cost a fraction of cornheads and pop off in minutes if a small grain crop is ready to harvest.

“Farmers like being able to try growing corn without investing in all the equipment,” says Dave Dietrich, Flexxifinger QD Industries, Inc. “One customer installed our Corn Harvest Pans on his two 45-ft. MacDon headers.

Instead of row units with snouts, Flexxifinger offers mild steel pans that are just over 9 in. wide at the cutterbar and about 3 ft. long. Each pan is centered every foot on the header to guide stalks into the cutter bar and make sure ears and the cut stalk move into the auger or onto the canvas.

“The Corn Harvest Pans take only about 30 min. to remove or replace once our quick-detach mechanism is installed,” says Dietrich. “They open up options in row spacing too,” he adds. “We don’t care if rows are spaced 15, 20 or 30 in., or if the crop is solid-seeded.”

Regardless of row spacing, Dietrich advises cutting the corn at an angle between 20º and 45º. This ensures the crop is spread out across the entire cutterbar, not bunching up in a few spots.

"The angle is largely determined by how rough the field is," says Dietrich. "Cutting height is also optional."

If the residue is to be baled, the cutter bar is set low. If residue is to be left to trap snow over winter, it can be cut higher.

Flexxifinger did limited testing of the concept with select customers in 2012. This year Dietrich hopes to have as many as 150 sets of Corn Harvest Pans in the field. Crews are traveling to install systems that initially can take as much as half a day with four people working on a 45-ft. header.

Dietrich says the Pans are available direct from the company this year. In the future, they will be offered through the Flexxifinger dealer network.

"We believe they will work on any combine with a 3-in. guard system. If they don't, we plan to make any needed modifications," says Dietrich. "We aren't saying they will replace cornheads. We don't know how they would work in a 200 to 300 bu./acre field, but we do believe they have a fit in areas where the yields aren't that heavy."

To see the Flexxifinger Corn Harvest Pans in action, check out the video at www.farmshow.com.