00:00 We're talking about innovation to help you farm faster and therefore farm better and hopefully more profitably. 00:00:05 That's what we're covering in this episode of Extreme Ag, cutting the curve. Welcome to Extreme ags Cutting the Curve podcast, 00:00:12 where real farmers share real insights and real results to help you improve your farming operation. This episode is brought to you by Simon Innovation. 00:00:21 Protect your crops and maximize yield with a full lineup of innovative precision tools engineered 00:00:27 to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of your sprayer. Visit simon innovations.com and start getting more ROI out of your sprayer. 00:00:35 And now here's your host, Damien Mason. Hey there. Welcome to another fantastic episode of Extreme as Cutting the Curve. 00:00:41 I've got Johnny Rell coming at you from Jackson, Tennessee. He's almost done with Corn Harvest already. 00:00:46 We're recording this in the fall of 2024. He's got some new innovations he's using around the farm that came to us from Demco 00:00:53 and he is pretty excited about all of them. But in particular, one, a new header trailer. I know header trailers don't usually get you geeked out 00:01:00 unless you are Troy Walberg, who's with Demco because that's what they do. They get excited about header trailers. 00:01:06 But anyway, if your farming operation is in shut, just face it losing time by getting from one field to the next. 00:01:14 I think you should tune into this if your farming operation is not as quick from field to field. 00:01:20 I think you should tune into this because that's a big part of what we're gonna cover here today. 00:01:24 Header trailers. I don't normally get too excited about 'em. You actually brought it up. Johnny Rell. 00:01:28 Why is this a game changer? Yeah, for us, you know where we are, the field roads are very narrow 00:01:34 where we turn in and off the main road. So all wheel steer trailers have been a big part of our farming operation the last few years. 00:01:40 And with those top trailers going down the road, usually it's more like a S snake going down the road. So you can't go fast. 00:01:46 Sometimes you can't even go as fast as the combines when they really start going and you can adjust on 'em, get 'em set perfect 00:01:52 and you know, have issues again. And you know, for us, when when I saw what Demco had coming out to the market with the high speed 00:02:00 all wheel steer trailers, you know, I was like, that's gonna be a game changer for us. 'cause a lot of times during harvest, if we're running three 00:02:06 or four combines, I don't have three or four pickup trucks sitting in the field. I wanna be able to take maybe one or two trucks 00:02:11 and move the combines in a timely fashion. So we'll take those header trailers, we'll drop a header on it, the combine will take off. 00:02:19 You know, the header trailer will take off behind it there. But coming back, you know, 00:02:22 you can run 65 miles per hour or whatever you want to do. And, and that header stays true right behind the truck, 00:02:28 whether the header's on it or not, it's uh, it's been a big game changer for us. And you know, another thing we've been running into these 00:02:34 new headers are so heavy, Damon, I mean, yeah, I don't even know what the new John Deere 40 foot, you know, HRA weigh, but several thousand more pounds than 00:02:43 what the previous model was. And we were really having a hard time not breaking down our header trailers as far as with the weight. 00:02:49 And that's been a big deal for us too. So, So Troy Berg's with us from Demco. Troy, I gotta ask you all right, uh, I know that it 00:02:57 around the offices of Demco, you get excited about head of trailers out here. We usually don't, but now we finally found 00:03:02 something to get excited about. Speed of transit, it's a big deal. You got harvest, uh, these guys like to get the harvest done 00:03:08 before, you know, some of our southern guys are trying to beat a hurricane. We've got all these issues. 00:03:13 Um, I'm probably one of the people that says, I don't think it's that big of a deal. I don't know man. So it takes you an extra day. 00:03:20 What's the, what's the big deal? But the other one is if you've got hired hands like John has and you've got, uh, four combines sitting 00:03:27 around waiting on the header, um, money starts to pile up. So you can justify getting excited about a header trailer, 00:03:35 I think because the economics of the, the time lag. Sure. What you said Damien is pretty accurate. You know, most people don't think about a header transport. 00:03:44 Um, you know, it's kind of the last thing on their mind. They order a couple new heads in and, and uh, heads come in 00:03:51 and all of a sudden we need a header transport. So the theory behind, uh, this new high speed all wheel steer was people, 00:03:59 like in Johnny's area, um, they have to run a a all wheel steer unit. Um, you know, the roads are are narrow. 00:04:07 They got small, uh, small driveways. So, you know, the, the fact of everyone wants to move at higher speeds, you know, get from A to BA lot quicker. 00:04:17 So that was, uh, obviously the theory behind this transport. So, you know, we, we agree most people don't think about it, 00:04:24 but uh, you know, we think it's pretty cool. Design works pretty good and, and really that's what we need it to do. 00:04:29 So This is your first year using it, Mr. Verell First year using these trailers? That's correct. Alright, so the difference from your perspective is speed. 00:04:41 What about your guy? I know obviously you said also they're more rugged, they're more heavy duty. Yes. 00:04:45 Yeah, absolutely. What's the, what about your guys that are out in the field? You got four combines running, it's not just you. 00:04:51 So what's, what do they say? Do they notice it? Oh yeah, they notice it because like I said, going down the road, I mean, we've had it 00:04:57 before where the trailers are literally zigzagging behind the combine behind a pickup truck. And that's not safe and that's not good. 00:05:03 And like I said, you can adjust on 'em and everything you wanna do. And they really made their, their trailer 00:05:08 where it's almost foolproof as far as when you turn in on some of the previous olive oil steer trailers. 00:05:13 You turn in, if you turn too sharp, you bend the tongue, tear up some things on the trailer, their trailer's kind 00:05:19 of designed where, you know, you take that aspect out of it and they really kind of put a lot 00:05:22 of thought into the longevity of that trailer, making it, you know, it's got everything you need for all the brackets 00:05:27 where you can slide the brackets where you need 'em for whatever width header you have or whatever header you're putting on there. 00:05:33 You know, being able to strap it down in just a few minutes, you're ready to roll out and go on. 00:05:37 And, you know, that's a big thing as far as us is we have to take our header off. You know, there's some days each con I take their header off 00:05:43 5, 6, 7 times in a day. You do that enough, you get tired of trying to line up on header trailers 00:05:49 where you can't see the brackets and they really got theirs where you can look down and see what you need to see and, and get that header off. 00:05:56 Your heads are great big, like you said, your grain heads are great, great, great big. They're very, very heavy. They're very big. 00:06:01 So this thing run down the road. I'm just thinking about the old days on a flatbed hay wagon where it uh, it, it sometimes would stay behind you, 00:06:08 but generally it was all over the road and, and sometimes in the ditch. So you're giving, speaking of which you like 00:06:13 to put stuff in ditch, you know, normally you're, you put a, you put a corn planter in the ditch last year, 00:06:17 so I'm not sure why you're concerned. Yeah, that's right. It, it happened from time to time on on the road. 00:06:22 We have, and you know, going along those same lines though, Damon, we had the dim co tanks on that tractor 00:06:27 and they went off in the ditch and mud piled up on 'em and they were still on there when we pulled it out the ditch. 00:06:31 So, you know, dim code was not for building very rugged products that are gonna last and, and be able to handle the stress that we put 'em in. 00:06:40 I I, I've seen their grain, their uh, their grain trailers, their grain carts. I've seen all that they get excited about. 00:06:45 Speaking of Demco stuff, Troy, can you quantify the return person listening to this? That's really cool. But you know what? 00:06:51 I can't afford new grain tra a grain head. Uh, uh, mover, uh, my new my new header trailer, uh, I can't do it because we're in, uh, 00:06:58 we're in low commodity prices. This is not the time of the year to spend on. Can you give me, can you quantify a return on a 00:07:06 grain head trailer? Well, so the header transport trailer, you know, you Keep calling it header transport. 00:07:13 Trailer head transport. I missed, I missed, you know, you should have corrected me. Troy said Damien is called a header transport trailer. 00:07:18 You know, the, I I think the, you know, the uh, exclamation point there is gonna be if you're buying a new head, um, you know what the costs or value of that head is. 00:07:29 So, um, you know, any more, you know, these headers are, you know, six digits. 00:07:35 Um, you know, what we really promote is, you know, are you really gonna go out and try and save a a thousand dollars or two, um, 00:07:43 and buy the cheapest head transport you can get. So, um, you know, we don't really, we don't build a cheap one. 00:07:49 Um, we know there's some, you know, brand X out there that, you know, are just trying to sell it off the dollar. 00:07:55 But, uh, you know, we, we try and sell it off quality. That's kinda what Demco has done, uh, for years. So, uh, we haven't changed with this, uh, 00:08:04 with this piece of equipment either. You just told me that there's something cheaper, but do, can you show me, can you show me the time saving? 00:08:13 Can you say, you know what our our our proposal to a prospective customer like Johnny Rell is boom, time saving, uh, it lasts longer, whatever. 00:08:23 What, what's the pitch? What's the value proposition that you go out there and uh, sell to farmers? 00:08:31 Sure. Uh, you know what Johnny said? Speed, um, speed, quality, uh, really that's um, I guess where we push, uh, push the, you know, we, 00:08:41 we generally we'll sell to the farmer through a dealer. So, um, you know, we're pushing the dealers on a, a good quality product. 00:08:49 Um, I think the high speed oil steer will speak for itself and will sell itself, 00:08:54 but, uh, you know, that's what we're, we're pushing it on is a good quality product. Johnny, what do I, 00:09:00 what am I missing when I think about this? Like I said, it is not typically a, a sexy uh, thing. It's not as exciting as combines 00:09:07 or big new tractors and all that. It's pretty important to you. You've got two of these 00:09:11 and you have two cheaper trailers, two cheaper trailers you keep in the barn just to put a header on the two that you're moving with. 00:09:17 When you're, and you cover a lot of ground, you cover a lot of acres, but also you don't, 00:09:21 you're not doing this in 1000 acre blocks. You're doing this in 60 acre blocks a lot of times. So you do move a lot. Yeah, 00:09:28 We, we shefield all the way down to two and three acres where you have to take the header off to get through an opening. 00:09:33 And I mean, like I said, for us it's, we love to drop a header 5, 6, 7 times a day per combine. And so having something that's gonna be 00:09:40 rugged enough to handle that abuse. 'cause every time you set a header on there and drop it on there, you know, sometimes things get, 00:09:46 you know, don't get set on the right but they're able to handle it. And the other thing is we went ahead 00:09:50 and got a header trailer that if we ever wanna go to a larger header, we already had that there too. This header trailer will be able to do both. 00:09:55 And you know, if you're kind of thinking about the future where we need to be and you know, 00:09:59 we have several all wheel steel trailers sitting out here on the farm. But like I said, if my guys have a choice, 00:10:04 they're always gonna hook up to the Demco, you know, high speed trailers that we have now just because when you hook onto 'em, 00:10:11 they track right behind that combine. And the beautiful thing about the all wheel steel trailers is, is wherever, wherever that truck turns into the field, 00:10:18 that's where the trailer's gonna be turning in off. So you don't have to swing out wide. It's, it's really changed us 00:10:23 how we're getting in and outta these fields. 'cause we have a lot of, you know, 15 foot culverts that we turn in a 20 foot Culver. Yeah, right. 00:10:29 And you got a, and you got a trailer that's, you got a trailer that's 45 feet long trying to fit through there or something like that. 00:10:34 That's a big one. Alright, get me out of this, uh, this, uh, header trailer just, uh, 00:10:38 header transport trailer discussion. And we're gonna move on to, uh, hopper extensions. Is there anything that I didn't ask you, Troy, about uh, 00:10:45 hopper transport trailers that you as the trained expert you can tell us about? What am I missing? Anything? 00:10:51 No, I think we covered it all. You know, it's, it's quality and speed and, and in the, in people's 00:10:57 or area territory, like what Johnny's in, you know, tight, uh, narrow roads and in corners and 00:11:07 Well, and Damon also, if you, if you buy a header that's 200 miles away, you just hook on the trailer and go, you're not having 00:11:13 to worry about how long it's gonna take. Coming back, you know, three or four hours out there, three or four hours back, you're back. 00:11:18 It's not taking you, you know, 10 hours to get out there. 'cause you can only go 25 miles per hour. 00:11:24 You know, if you really wanna have friends in this world buy high speeded header trailers so everybody can bar 00:11:28 to go buy the new header trailers all over the country. 'cause Well, yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna say, 00:11:31 you're not farming 200 miles away, but you're just talking about going and buying a new header. Well, more importantly, uh, there's a lot of time, 00:11:36 by the way, how's the capacity from house big to how little, uh, does, does one of your trailers fit Troy? 00:11:42 Uh, 32 all the way up to a 52 footer. So, um, you know, we got, uh, is That all the same trailer or do I have 00:11:50 to get a different trailer different? No, 32, 38, 44, 48 and 52 All go on the same trailer. 00:12:00 Those are different models. Different models. Those are okay, five different, you have five different size models. Yep. 00:12:05 But technically you can put a 32 foot header on a 50 foot trailer if that's what you're wanting to do. 00:12:09 It just it, But why, but why would you buy a 50 foot ex unless you already had the trailer. Yeah, right. So, all right, so 500 trailers. All right. 00:12:17 You like the hopper, the hopper extensions on your combine. You're a Demco guy. 00:12:21 You've got Demco tanks on your, uh, saddle tanks. So tell me about the hopper extensions. Is it innovation that saves, 00:12:27 it makes you farm faster and better? Oh Absolutely. The other day I got up a combine 00:12:32 that did not have the Demco extensions on it and it was like going back in time as far as you fill up so much faster and it doesn't sound like a lot, 00:12:38 but an extra a hundred bushel, especially in wet corn, you know, it just gives you more time for those grain carts to get back and it takes a little longer to dump. 00:12:45 And it, it is really changed us on the amount of time to weight. And you know, I, that's one thing if we, 00:12:50 if we get combines every year, we're gonna add the Demco hopper extensions just because of the, the amount of volume you're able to hold. 00:12:57 Like I said, sometimes when those grain cart leave, it just gives you an extra, you know, an extra half acre or so forth that had to be back. 00:13:03 And that adds up in a day's time when the amount of time you're stopping and, you know, putting 'em on is not a big deal at all. 00:13:09 So, you know, we, we've ran 'em all year. We ran 'em through wheat now we ran 'em through corn into soybeans 00:13:15 and that's one piece of equipment we haven't worked on at all. It was fascinated. Uh, 00:13:19 in the old days you had a little gravity bed wagon that was like a 125 bushel gravity bed wagon. And now in the modern combine, what's, 00:13:29 what's the hopper hold in the modern combine? A few hundred A bushels. Yeah, three 50 to four oh 00:13:35 bushel usually is what they're running. So you have these extensions, it really adds onto 'em. You can increase your volume of your holding capacity by, 00:13:43 you know, 20% or more real easy depending on the hopper you got. Sure. Right. And then all of a sudden you get to the end 00:13:48 of the field or if you're in an ob long field where you are, you don't have a lot of, you don't have a lot 00:13:53 of square rectangle eighties and one twenties and one sixties where you are. So you might be back behind, uh, the, 00:14:01 the valley on the other side of the woods and uh, getting an extra, getting an extra 150 bushels in matters. 00:14:07 'cause then you can get around to where the truck is. That's right. It just buys you more time. It keeps everything flowing. 00:14:12 And we didn't realize at the time we put 'em on two combines and didn't put it on the other two. 00:14:16 And you know, next year for sure all the combines will have 'em. 'cause everybody wants to fight over the ones 00:14:20 with the hopper extensions just 'cause it, it keeps you from stopping. And we do a pretty good job of never stopping, 00:14:25 but there's always things that happen where you need, you need, you can't make it to the end of the field 'cause you're almost full and you have to stop and back up 00:14:32 and cut a little opening for the grain cart. Now that extra a hundred bushels lets you blast on through the field and, and get to the end 00:14:37 and make that turn so you don't have to stop. So it's, it is been a good deal. And I mean the, the usability of, it's a big piece too, 00:14:44 Troy, the value proposition. So a farmer says, I don't need to pay for your hopper extensions. 00:14:48 My hoppers are big enough. You say exactly what you just heard Johnny say, well what about when you're behind the, behind the woods 00:14:54 and over there and what, what's your, what do you tell him? Yeah, you know, the, the extra capacity. 00:15:00 It just doesn't seem like the factory capacities are big enough. Um, you know, the new combines, the heads are all bigger. 00:15:06 Um, you know, everyone's, you know, putting on a, what we call 'em as a tip up kit, uh, that goes on the, the extension. 00:15:14 So, um, you know, it's, it's pretty value added. Um, and uh, they, we move a lot of 'em. Um, uh, if I'm a considering this 00:15:26 'cause I wanna farm faster, like Johnny Rell, how many different versions do I need depending on the different brand or model of combine I have? 00:15:35 How many different do you make one for every specific machine? Yeah, we've probably got over, I would say probably 65 00:15:44 to 70 different tip up kits. So, um, or extensions so to speak. Um, you know, we would make one for uh, you know, 00:15:53 an STS series, combine a 20-year-old combine. We would make a aftermarket extension for that. Um, it's all, 00:16:00 all gaining capacity is, is what we're doing there. Um, then of course the, the popular ones today are the power fold tip up kits. 00:16:07 So that's what Johnny's running again. It adds a hundred bushels to his, uh, to his uh, factory extension. 00:16:15 Uh, you hit the button, it folds down, folds out. Um, you're not going out there messing around with anything. So, um, it works with the factory folding extension. 00:16:26 So when you go and trade your combine, it goes with this because the next thing, the next machine you get, 00:16:30 unless it's identical machine, you've gotta get different extensions. Yes. Unless it's identical machine, 00:16:35 but looks like it's gonna be that way for a little bit longer. The, the hoppers are not changing so much. 00:16:39 But, you know, other thing, dam it looks factory. It's not, it doesn't look, you know, like it was pieced together by a bunch 00:16:45 of farmers. It's does, It doesn't look like you took a sheet of plywood out there and, and some drywall screws. 00:16:50 Yeah, I mean they do, they do a good job of making it, you know, flow with the comp. I mean it looks just like a factory 00:16:55 hopper extension when you open it up. And that's a big deal too. 'cause you don't wanna have something that, you know, sticks out. 00:17:00 It doesn't look good. And a lot of times when things don't look good and kind of stick out of place, they don't last either. 00:17:05 And I mean, we haven't had any issues with these hopper extensions all year. So Yeah. Hook hooking trees 00:17:10 or grabbing power lines or something like that. Right. Cool. Can you make the economic argument for it, 00:17:15 Johnny Rel you're the farmer and right now everybody's listening to us saying, man, I don't know. 00:17:19 It is, it's, it is neat to, it is neat to talk about how big you are. It's neat to talk about I can hold more than you. 00:17:23 I my combine holds more than yours does. But does it pay for itself? I got a low commodity environment, you say 00:17:30 Absolutely. For what the combines cost. You can add something like this for, you know, small amount of money and what you're getting added on 00:17:36 and the the time it'll save me in a day. And the, the longer it'll give you before you fill up is, is worth every penny in my opinion. 00:17:43 Well, what are we talking 10, 20 grand? I don't even know. It's not very much money when you compare it to six 00:17:48 or $700,000 machine, right? Yeah. It's less than $5,000 machine. Quite a bit less than 5,000 machine. 00:17:54 So it's, it is not bad at all and takes just a few hours to put 'em on. Just like anything you put the first one on takes a little 00:17:59 while, the second one's real easy and you just roll on through it and knock 'em out. And I mean, it's, and 00:18:04 You keep a combine on your operation. The combine lasts for three years. Uh, usually one year. 00:18:09 Only one. Okay, so that means you're gonna be changing them out or do they or they go with it. 00:18:14 That's right. That's right. And I think if I wanted to sell 'em to whoever's buying 'em, that'd be pretty easy to do because it's already installed 00:18:19 and Yeah, they like the value it's gonna bring. And like he said, that's one thing the combines are getting bigger. 00:18:24 Everybody's going from 30 foot heads, 35 40, 45 foot heads now 50. It's the same grain tank. Yeah. 00:18:30 So it makes a lot of sense that they're coming out with this and it, you know, it's, it, it shows that Demco is listening 00:18:35 to the farmers and trying to get value where it's needed and help these farmers be more 00:18:39 profitable and more efficient. It's the big thing In epha to farm faster and better. Get me outta here, Troy Walberg, 00:18:45 I'm gonna get from last to each of you. We talked about grain, uh, hopper extensions, we talked about, uh, header transport trailers there. 00:18:51 Anything else? No, I think we've covered everything on those two uh, points today, so appreciate your time 00:18:58 and of course we uh, got videos on our website as well. So you can visit us@www.demcoproducts.com, Demco products.com. 00:19:08 Go and check it all out. Johnny Rell, anything innovation to farm faster and better? 00:19:13 Uh, you've, you've got experience with this stuff, get me outta here. Anything? Yeah, I would just say just make sure you partner 00:19:18 with somebody like Demco because Likey said they've got at all on their website so when you go to put it together, there's videos 00:19:24 to show you really good directions. It makes things a lot easier versus trying to get something that you can't read the directions 00:19:30 or don't look like the combine you have. And so I would say that's one of the big things moving forward. 00:19:34 Whether it's the header trailers on the setup or the grain tank extensions, it's been a big deal as far as how easy it is to use 00:19:41 and I really think we'll never go back on the grain tank extensions for sure. 'cause it really does add a lot of value 00:19:47 with the less downtime when you're filling Up and, and your header transport trailers. Um, they're gonna last, 00:19:52 I mean the combine's gonna change every year and probably the heads go with the, your, your corn and grain head go with the, uh, machine every year, right? 00:20:00 Yeah. So I mean the header trailers last, you know, for 15, 20 years I guess, you know, I, we've got header trailers that are really over right now. 00:20:08 We've had to change the tires because they dry rotted several times, so I don't see no reasonably wouldn't last. 00:20:13 What I'm seeing right now. And the biggest thing is we put several miles on these header trailers 00:20:17 and probably unloaded on 30, 40 times pretty easy here in the last few weeks. And they're in just as good a shape now 00:20:23 as they were when we got 'em. And that, that's a big deal for us. Nothing's getting outta outta shape or getting bent 00:20:28 and they're, they're definitely built to hold up. You'll change 'em when you get heads that are more than 52 feet long is 00:20:35 what it sounds like to me. Yeah, we'll have a lot more issues if we got a 52 foot headers here, 00:20:40 I'll say in some of your fields, 52 feet might, uh, it, it is like, uh, that's a little, that's maybe a little, that's maybe a little bit difficult if you were in like, 00:20:46 like Saskatchewan maybe. Yeah, well she and Rose and have the whole field shelf so we Got it. 00:20:53 His name is Johnny Ral. He's joined by uh, Demco Troy Wall. But we're talking about innovation 00:20:58 to help you farm faster and better. Uh, you can learn more about the Demco product line at Demco. 00:21:02 What is it? Demco hyphen products.com. Got it. So next time. Thanks for being here. Johnny Rell 00:21:08 with XT Extreme Mag at Tory wallboard them coat. And I'm Dam Mason. If this was helpful to you, share it with somebody I can, uh, uh, learn from it. 00:21:14 Also, remember, there's a whole library, a whole library of great podcasts like this. 00:21:19 Literally hundreds of videos just like this as well as videos. These guys shoot out in the field. 00:21:23 You'll take your learning to the next level for $750 a year. Become an extreme Ag member, get direct access 00:21:28 and a question answer platform with guys like Johnny. You can also get year end trial and data results and you get special offers from our business partners. 00:21:36 Thanks for being here. We are extreme ag and we are cutting the curve. That's a wrap for this episode of Cutting the Curve. 00:21:43 Make sure to check out Extreme ag.farm for more great content to help you squeeze more profit out of your farming operation. 00:21:50 Cutting the curve is brought to you by Simon Innovations. Don't let your sprayer's limitations hold you back. 00:21:55 Visit simon innovations.com 00:21:57.585 --> 00:21:59.845