Build-It-Yourself Narrow Row Header Kit

Build-It-Yourself Narrow Row Header Kit COMBINES Headers 20-5-23 A South Dakota company is offering a "do-it-yourself" kit that lets you build your own narrow row corn header using reconditioned row units off Deere 4-row corn headers. "You can buy your own used frame and mount our reconditioned row units on them for far less money than buying a new narrow row header of comparable size," says Dave Clarke, Clarke Machine, Howard, S. Dak. "If you don't have the time or expertise to build your own header, we sell complete units, too." The company goes to farm sales, machinery dealers, etc., and buys Deere 4-row corn headers, then strips off the row units and totally reconditions them. They recently displayed a 12-row, 22-in. header, built from reconditioned row units off three Deere 4-row heads, at the first annual Dakota Fest farm show near Mitchell, S. Dak. According to Clarke, the kit offers big savings. "Our 12-row 22-in. header sells for about $27,500 and will do just as good a job as a new Deere 12-row header that sells for about $50,000. You can save even more money by building your own. We sell re-conditioned row units for about $1,350 per row, and you can buy your own frame and auger for about $5,000. "We buy Deere 4-row headers because row for row they're the least expensive on the market. There never were enough big corn heads built to meet the demands of today's farmers. However, we can also re-condition the row units off other combine brands. We can make the headers to any width with row spacings as narrow as 18 inches." Clarke recently built a 10-row, 15-in corn header for Dwayne Beck at South Dakota State's Dakota Lakes Research Farm Unlike other 15-row heads, it has two gathering chains per row. Beck will use it to harvest 245 acres of irrigated and non-irrigated plots this fall. "The big question all farmers have is exactly what row width they should go to. For example, they don't want to go to 22 in. rows and then find out later that 15-in. rows would have been better. I don't think 15-in. rows will be the answer for big-acreage farmers because the super narrow row headers are so heavy. For example, our 10-row, 15-in header weighs 6,000 to 7,000 lbs. which is about as much as most combines can handle Someone will have to invent a whole different way of harvesting corn before super narrow rows will be practical for big farmers. Beck even plans to experiment with stripper headers on corn." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Clarke Machine, Box 694, East Highway 34 Howard, S. Dak. 57349 (ph 800 658-4568 or 605 772-4164).

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