“We’ve cut about half our beans so far, and our confidence with the MacDon FD70 has gone from sceptical to being very, very pleased. For being 40 feet wide you’d think you wouldn’t be able to hug the contour of the ground, but it doesn’t just hug the ground, it shaves it. The biggest benefit that I see is the way the head feeds. With the belt delivery system, it’s so consistent; it’s like the crop almost forms a rope in the centre and helps pull itself into the combine. Until a person sees it run, I don’t think you can completely understand how even and smooth it feeds… it’s really amazing. When I first looked at the FlexDraper and I saw the sickle it seemed under-built. I thought, “oh gee I’m going to jerk the head off of this sickle,” especially because that sickle cuts so low you can comb the ground and pick up a little more debris. But, because of the FlexDraper’s hydraulic drive, all you do is stall it out if you hit a fence post, a rock or a piece of metal. There’s less damage, and there doesn’t seem to be any need to repair it. As far as performance, efficiency and ease of maintenance, the FlexDraper has been a good move. Would I do it again? Definitely.”

Matt Martin / Kingman, Indiana

Producer’s comments

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