CORN GROWERS CAN THANK YEARS OF AGRONOMIC ADVANCES FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT of high-yielding hybrids with strong stalks that
resist drought, wind and numerous pests.
While use of these hybrids under
high fertility programs and plant populations can generate tremendous
yields, they also generate large amounts of seemingly indestructible
crop residue for growers to deal with after harvest.
"With corn that yields 200
to 250 bushels per acre, there's a lot more trash in the fields
to deal with and it can be a real challenge some years,"
says Ed Mason of Ft. Branch, Indiana, who farms 1,300 acres,
including 900 acres of corn. Mason, like many growers in the
Corn Belt, found he was spending more time unclogging plugged
discs and shredders and dealing with tougher, rougher fields
in the fall and the spring.
So what was the answer to Mason's
problem?
"I was using an older unit
that just wasn't able to handle the trash we had, so we tried
a new Dominator Tillage System last fall on 100 acres of corn
stubble and the difference was remarkable," says Mason.
"The Dominator did a much better job of cutting the trash
into smaller pieces and burying it than anything I've ever used.
We could set it at a 12-inch cutting depth and run it at a faster
pace."
Mason
also noticed that in the fields tilled with the Dominator last
fall, he had a much smoother seedbed this spring to work with.
"We made one pass with a field cultivator and planted.
It made both the fall tillage and spring planting much easier
and faster."
The Dominator Tillage System,
manufactured by Krause Corporation, is one of the newest combination
implements on the market designed to provide improved crop residue
management, soil fracture and mixing, seedbed conditioning and
field leveling. These are all tasks that would traditionally
have been done with several types of equipment requiring more
time and trips across the fields.
Curt Davis, who led the Krause
Dominator development team, says that plan genetics and agronomic
conditions in the field have changed drastically in the last
10 to 15 years, requiring equipment manufacturers to develop
new tools that are more effective and efficient under these
conditions. "We had to take a fresh new look at the tillage
practices of growers today to uncover what their true needs
were," explains Davis.
"We found that growers wanted
equipment that provided improvements in three areas: crop residue
cutting and burying; soil fracture and mixing; and field leveling
and clod-size uniformity for better seedbed preparation,"
Davis adds. "Our goal was to take a clean-sheet approach
and design and produce an innovative tillage system that would
address all three needs of corn growers for the future."
Designed to Be Different
From the very beginning, Davis
says the Dominator was designed to be different and more effective
while still using many of the same tillage mechanics. According
to Davis, it performs multiple tasks, operates at a high speed
and reduces the plugging and rough-field conditions common after
the use of traditional equipment.
Krause credits the large 25-inch
diameter coulters on 9-inch spacing for the effectiveness of
the Dominator to cut crop residue length by up to 35 percent.
In addition, the exclusive Residue Manager option positions
stalks laterally in front of the coulter to reduce stalk length
by an additional 25 percent.
The middle components of the Dominator
manage soil tilth with several shank and point options and configurations,
depending on the soil conditions and tillage needs of each grower.
These shank options include parabolic deep tillage shanks or
heavy-duty chisel shanks on two ranks at 18-inch spacing for
maximum soil fracture and nonstop operation in heavy residue.
The rear of the Dominator is comprised
of a hydraulically adjustable disc conditioner system that utilizes
two rows of 24-inch disc blades on individual Rock-Flex mounts
to reduce clod size and level the field. Davis says the Dominator
has several attachment options and comes in four widths, from
a 12-ft. rigid model to a 21-ft. folding model, depending on
the size needs of growers.
Soil Leveling and Conditioning Benefits

Larry Sonne who farms 800 acres
of corn near Charles City, Iowa, says the soil leveling and
conditioning benefits of the Dominator are a significant improvement
over older tillage technology. "Taking care of crop residue
has a huge impact on field conditions, plugging of equipment
and how fast you can operate your equipment to get the work
done," Sonne says.
"We tried the Dominator on
130 acres under some very wet and cold conditions to see how
it would perform and I should have used it on all our fields.
We could run it at about seven miles per hour with excellent
results and no plugging. Even my wife noticed how smooth fields
were in the spring when she drove the pickup over them."
Economic Advantages
Davis explains that some growers
are finding they can eliminate use of a flail shredder or stalk
chopper in the fall or a pass with a field cultivator or disc
in the spring for seedbed prep because of the Dominator. Krause
estimates the cost savings at approximately $6 to $10 per acre
per trip in addition to the possibility of fewer field passes,
saving the use what could be considerable time during the busy
planting and harvest seasons.
Both
time and money are big factors when you're managing thousands
of acres of corn, says Junior Frische of Dalhart, Texas, who
has used a 15-ft. Dominator for two years on 5,000 acres of
corn. "Having fields in better shape in the fall saves
us a lot of time and extra trips, in addition to the general
improvement in field condition," Frische says.
"Our fields have a variety
of soils from clay loam to sand and the Dominator adjusts to
the trash and soil conditions with no problem," Frische
adds. "More importantly, it handles cooler and wetter soils
better than most equipment, which lets us get into the fields
earlier in the day and stay longer at night." In Frische's
experience, "It's a very flexible and effective one-pass
tool that fits our soil conditions and practices very well."
The Dominator is yet another example
of the advancements in technology that can be made as manufacturers
take farmers' evaluations of their own needs into account in
new product development.