In 2021, we saw a wide spread of crop conditions across the U.S. While 13 states reached record corn and soybean yields (source: agweb.com), Montana recorded its ninth driest year since 1895 and the surrounding northern states also reported drought (source: ncdc.noaa.gov). These stark differences exemplify the importance of aligning operational investments with the harvest conditions faced in your geographical region. With many indications pointing to a continuation of last year’s weather trends, now is a great time to upgrade your combine to include Kondex concaves for maximized outputs and profits.
Those of you already familiar with Kondex concaves know we don’t promote an all-crop concave. While the concept is certainly buzzworthy in today’s market, it’s impossible for a single set of concaves to perform well in all fields, all locations, and all crops, period. Instead, we’ve taken a customizable approach to concaves – letting you fine tune the threshing and separation needed for your conditions. This starts with the half-width design of both our KX7 and Kondex Revolution concaves. This alone doubles your concave configuration flexibility. We went a step further with the removeable boxes in our KX7 concaves, allowing users to add more or less threshing or separation by swapping inserts. This has been particularly useful in the most difficult crop conditions where a slight increase in threshing brings considerable boosts in grain capture.
John Deere KX7 configuration used for tough-threshing soybeans with additional MaxThresh boxes mid-rotor to aid in threshing returns
John Deere KX7 configuration used for easier-threshing wheat with decreasing MaxThresh boxes to maximize capacity
Case Flagship KX7 configuration used for high-moisture corn and soybeans with an additional MaxThresh assembly to improve threshing
Kondex concaves bring a unique helical, angled bar design, resulting in better up-front threshing from the way the crop meets the threshing bars head on. This more aggressive approach allows for increased capacity, grain-on-grain threshing, and greater separation as the crop progresses down the rotor. Kondex concave users see far fewer whitecaps in wheat, and in all crops less grain damage and a significant reduction in rotor loss.
The question then becomes, “So what?” Why are Kondex’s concave design options important and how do they impact my operation? And the answer lies in the numbers. The more dialed in you are to your harvest conditions, the more you save in a good year. And conversely, the less you lose in a bad year. In high-yielding regions, this means you not only get more grain in the tank, but you also capture the highest quality grain. And in drought regions where threshing conditions become very difficult, you’re able to capture the grain that emerges with far greater ease than traditional or alternative aftermarket concaves.
Now let’s consider crop prices, which were up considerably in 2021 and are predicted to continue climbing in 2022. It goes without saying that the more grain and kernels you capture, the more money you’ll put in your pocket. Looking at the 2021 average yields for corn, soybeans, and wheat and applying the loss percentages of traditional versus Kondex concaves to future pricing shows us a dramatic return on investment with Kondex concaves. While we subjectively feel the average rotor loss with traditional concaves is well above 1.5%, we are using this value as it is known to be an “acceptably good” value for losses by OEMs. Kondex rotor loss averages have been calculated using drop pan testing across multiple locations, makes, models, and crops. As shown in the chart, the Kondex concaves pay for themselves in approximately 500 acres or less!
As we mentioned at the start of this article, it’s important to consider the factors in your geographic area and/or crop conditions. With dealers across the U.S., we recommend talking with your local dealer and neighboring farmers about Kondex concaves. You may not be able to predict exactly what Mother Nature will bring, but you can still Take Control of Your Harvest!