Had someone told Kelly Kravig 20 years ago that 500-horsepower combines would be rumbling through fields at harvest, the Case IH combine marketing manager and western Kansas grain farmer would have been skeptical at the very least.

Dissatisfied with his previous corn head’s snapping rollers, Ross Bishop built a 20-inch, eight-row corn head out of International parts in pursuit of a shorter harvest time.

A Washington no-tiller has designed an attachment that allows him to use a draper header on his tractor to swath and bale wheat stubble in one pass.

Progress is great, but with the good sometimes also comes the bad. Such is the case with residue.

It used to be that the primary task of a corn head was to harvest corn: separate the ear from the stalk with as little grain loss as possible, while collecting as little trash as possible, says Marion Calmer, a no-till farmer with Calmer Corn Heads in Alpha, Ill. But as growers look to better integrate field operations, the corn head is playing an increasingly important role in managing crop residue as well.

Some farming innovators maintain harvest is the key to making any no-till program work. You’ve got to spread straw, chaff and stalks evenly across your fields if you want the best no-tilling conditions at seeding time.