Ben Sanberg of Kirkwood, Illinois, operates a family farm with his father and three brothers. Always on the lookout for innovative equipment and techniques that go beyond the status quo, they purchased their first set of Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastators in 2023 for their John Deere 693 non-chopping corn head.
The Sanbergs do some continuous corn as well as corn-on-beans. Before investing in the Devastator, they tried other options for managing cornstalks, like stalk stompers. The Sanbergs tend to cut high to leave as much of the stalks as they can, then they go back to shatter the stalks by either running their Yetter Maverick™ HR Plus® strip-till bar or a vertical tillage tool over them. According to Ben, they followed this process the first season they used the Devastator. After their pass through the field with their Devastators, there was some rainfall. When Ben and his family returned in a couple of weeks, they were very impressed by the level of stalk breakdown they observed in the field.
“It was amazing. We just loved it.”
Unlike the stomper-style attachments the family had tried, Yetter Devastator rollers have flat steel bars welded to them. The spring-loaded rolling action of the Devastators plus those steel bars crimped the cornstalks on the Sanberg operation to the ground and split them open. The root balls remained intact, keeping the stalks in the field. Air and moisture were able to enter those broken stalks and speed up residue breakdown. On top of the nutrients the stalks released into the ground, Ben says they had the easiest trips they’ve ever made through the field when they went to strip-till thanks to how decomposed the Devastated stalks were.
“With the current hybrids, we're producing more and more yield, right? So there's just so much more plant material we have to manage on the back end. One way [to do that] is getting in early, cracking those stalks open, allowing it to get weather, then water, and then coming back and shattering it, and then we allow it to go right into strips. … We do as much as we possibly can to break it down now. And that's why we've really, really enjoyed [Yetter Farm Equipment’s] system. … It's been beneficial for us. It just allows us to be very efficient with our time.”
The Sanbergs were so pleased with the results that ahead of the 2024 harvest season—when they switched to an eight-row combine that came with stalk stompers—they bought another Devastator and fully swapped out all the preinstalled stompers with Yetter Devastators.
Ben Sanberg’s Grower Insights story highlights the benefits of investing in Yetter Stalk Devastators, especially for operations where there is a lot of crop residue to manage. By both knocking over and crimping cornstalks, the Devastator saves tires from stalk damage and improves planting conditions for next year. Nutrients from those broken stalks are released into the ground as the residue breaks down, jump-starting microbial activity.
