Corn prices move up and down every season, but there’s one loss farmers rarely talk about because it never shows up on a settlement sheet: grain left in the field. With 2026 bringing record harvested corn acreage nationwide and disease pressure from anthracnose and tar spot pushing some growers toward earlier harvest dates, the margin […]
1. Introduction Soybeans are one of the most economically significant crops harvested worldwide, yet they remain among the most challenging to thresh without sustaining mechanical damage. Cracked or split soybeans — commonly referred to as “crackage” — result in dockage at the elevator, reduced market value, and increased susceptibility to spoilage during storage. The combine […]
Harvest season doesn’t forgive wasted time. A few hours of unplanned downtime — spent swapping concaves, diagnosing plugging, or re-threshing lost grain — can cost thousands of dollars in missed yield and delayed acres. Yet one of the most controllable variables in that equation sits right inside the rotor cage: your concave setup. Getting concave […]
Corn harvest is one of the most demanding operations on a large U.S. farm. High yields, tight harvest windows, variable moisture levels, and pressure to cover more acres per day all put stress on combines—and on the grain itself. While horsepower and rotor speed often get the spotlight, one component quietly plays a major role […]
Agritechnica 2025 — held in Hannover, Germany — once again proved it’s the premier global event for agricultural innovation. With a theme centered on “Touch Smart Efficiency,” the show brought together thousands of farmers, equipment manufacturers, researchers, and technology developers to showcase how farm machinery is evolving. The focus this year was on smart systems, […]
Modern harvests demand more than horsepower — they demand precision, efficiency, and clean grain. For Fendt IDEAL owners, one of the most critical components affecting performance is the concave — the curved grate that works with the rotor to thresh and separate grain. Aftermarket innovators such as Estes Performance Concaves have taken this essential part […]
Estes concaves cost savings can be substantial when you consider that traditional rotor combines typically leave 4-5 bushels per acre unharvested. This translates to staggering losses of 15,000 to 20,000 bushels per thousand acres—a significant financial drain on any farming operation. We’ve discovered that innovations like the XPR3 Concaves offer an all-in-one solution for multiple […]
The combine concave, the life-blood of threshing, remains almost unchanged by traditional manufacturers for over 50 years. Other harvesting technologies advanced by a lot, but the heart of the combine harvester stayed frozen in time. Estes Performance Concaves disrupted this status quo with their revolutionary XPR 3 system. Field comparisons of John Deere S780s, S790s, […]
Estes concaves help farmers achieve a remarkable 30% boost in productivity nationwide. Their innovative design improves grain flow and quality while reducing operational downtime. Farmers lose valuable harvest time when changing traditional combine concaves between different crops. The new XPR3 and XPR2 All-Crop concaves solve this problem completely. These advanced combine concaves perform better than […]
The John Deere 9500 and John Deere 9600 combines are both popular machines in the agricultural industry, known for their reliability and efficient harvesting capabilities. When it comes to the concaves, which are part of the threshing and separation system, there are some important differences and nuances between the two models. Here’s a detailed comparison […]