Agriculture and Farm Equipment Blog!

Harvest season is always a busy time, and when you’re out in the field, every minute counts. But nothing throws a wrench in your plans quite like unexpected delays. One of the most frustrating culprits? Chain slippage on your header’s feed drum. If you’ve been there, you know how quickly it can bring your operation to a halt, leaving you scrambling to get things back on track. 

 » Read more about: Tired of Chain Slippage Causing Harvest Delays? There’s a Simple Solution  »

We’ve heard it before: “Why can’t I just try a couple of Duck Foot Paddle Tines and see how it goes?” It’s a fair question, but the truth is, using just a few Duck Foot attachments will actually do more harm than good. Let us explain why going all-in is the only way to get the efficiency and results you want.

Wad Feeding: The Problem You Want to Avoid

The biggest issue with using only a couple of Duck Foot Paddle Tines is what we call “wad feeding.”

 » Read more about: Don’t Risk Header Loss: Why Full Coverage with Duck Foot Paddle Tines Matters  »

Harvest season is a critical time, and if you’re running a MacDon header or a Case IH harvester, you know every minute counts. However, dealing with delays caused by issues with your header’s drum can quickly turn a smooth operation into a series of frustrating setbacks. Uneven feeding, crop compression, and frequent plugging are common challenges that many operators face. Let’s explore why these problems occur and how upgrading your drum can lead to a more efficient harvest.

 » Read more about: Overcoming Header Feeding Challenges: How the Right Drum Can Make All the Difference for Your MacDon Header  »

When you’re out in the field, every bit of crop matters. We all know that keeping crop loss to a minimum is crucial, especially right at the front of your header. That’s where the battle really starts. As your crops get cut and pulled into the header, traditional tines often leave a bit too much on the table—or in this case, on the ground.

 » Read more about: Paddle Tines vs. Traditional Tines: What’s the Real Difference?  »

Unthreshed material can pose a significant challenge during harvest, leading to decreased efficiency and profitability. This happens when the combine fails to adequately separate the grain from the chaff, leaving valuable kernels still attached to the plant material. Unthreshed material can clog your combine, reduce grain quality, and increase the amount of grain lost. Fortunately, Copperhead Ag Concaves and TNT Cover Plates from Thunderstruck Ag Equipment offer effective solutions to tackle this problem head-on.

 » Read more about: How to Solve Unthreshed Material  »

Cracked grain can be a major issue during harvest, leading to significant losses in both yield and quality. This problem arises when the grain is damaged during the threshing process, resulting in broken kernels that are less marketable and may spoil more quickly. Fortunately, Copperhead Ag Concaves and TNT Cover Plates from Thunderstruck Ag Equipment offer effective solutions to mitigate cracked grain and enhance your harvest efficiency.

 » Read more about: How to Solve Cracked Grain This Harvest Season  »

Sieve loss is a significant issue that can drastically impact the efficiency of your harvest. This problem occurs when grain is improperly separated during the cleaning process and falls through the sieves, leading to a direct loss of yield. Fortunately, Copperhead Ag Concaves and TNT Cover Plates from Thunderstruck Ag Equipment offer robust solutions to address sieve loss and enhance your overall harvest efficiency.

 » Read more about: How to Solve Sieve Loss with Copperhead Ag Concaves and TNT Cover Plates  »

Crop loss during harvest is a significant but often overlooked issue in modern agriculture. Many farmers are unaware of the true extent of their losses, which can have a substantial impact on your bottom line. In this article we’ll explore this problem and how tools like the ScherGain Solution System can help address it.

 » Read more about: Understanding and Minimizing Crop Loss: The ScherGain Solution System  »

Rotor loss is a common and frustrating issue that farmers face during harvest. It occurs when the rotor in a combine threshes grain too aggressively, causing kernel damage or sending unthreshed grain out the back of the combine. This can lead to significant yield loss and decreased profitability. Fortunately, Copperhead Ag Concaves paired with the TNT Cover Plates from Thunderstruck Ag Equipment offer effective solutions to minimize rotor loss and maximize your harvest efficiency.

 » Read more about: How to Solve Rotor Loss with Copperhead Ag Concaves and TNT Cover Plates  »

Upgrading your John Deere Air Seeder with the Aricks Residue Managers is a decision that could significantly improve your efficiency and crop yields. This integration not only enhances your machinery; it is also a step towards modernizing agricultural practices, ensuring sustainability, and maximizing profitability. Let’s talk about the multitude of benefits that come with this upgrade, compelling reasons that make this investment worthwhile for farmers.

 » Read more about: Why Should I Choose The Aricks Residue Manager?  »

In the heart of Australia’s rich agricultural lands, innovation thrives not just as a concept but as a tangible reality. Thunderstruck Ag Equipment is thrilled to spotlight a partnership that epitomizes this spirit of innovation and introduce Jacqui and Colin Wemyss from Aricks Australia. Over a decade ago, they embarked on a mission to redefine the standards of durability and efficiency in John Deere Air Disc Drills, leading to the creation of a complete lineup of wear part solutions designed to outlast and outperform.

 » Read more about: Aricks Australia: Pioneering Durability in John Deere Air Disc Drill Solutions  »

As a farmer, you understand that achieving optimal yields starts with precision in planting practices. One crucial component that often plays a pivotal role in this process is the row cleaner. In this guide, we’ll address some fundamental questions to help you make informed decisions about whether you need Row Cleaners, what type suits your needs, and which blade style is most appropriate for your field conditions.

 » Read more about: Pin Adjust or Floating Row Cleaners, which One is Right For Me?  »

In today’s modern farming practices, precision and efficiency are essential components of a successful harvest. While farmers often focus on seeding and spraying, recognizing the importance of precision at the harvesting stage is crucial. Steve Kastning, the Founder and President of Duck Foot Parts Inc., has revolutionized harvest precision with the invention of Duck Foot® Slip Over Paddle Tines.

 » Read more about: Harvest Precision Starts at the Header: Introducing Duck Foot® Slip Over Paddle Tines  »

We all know that drying grain is an essential part of harvest, but it can also be time-consuming and expensive. The ThunderDryer from Go Technologies is an innovative farmer-invented product that offers three exciting benefits that make it a must-have if you’re looking to streamline your operation and save some hard earned money.

 » Read more about: 3 Benefits of the ThunderDryer: Drying Your Grain Is Easier Than Ever  »

One of the biggest issues facing farmers at harvest is the limited capacity that they encounter with their draper header feed drum. As OEM header drums force material towards the center of the drum and only feed through at the center of the drum, this limits the capacity to feed crops into the combine,and ultimately reduces the capacity of the header. In addition farmers run the risk of plugging their machine, as well as increasing rotor loss as often the material will clump when feeding with the OEM drums.

 » Read more about: Increase Combine Header Feeding Drum Capacity – Thunderstruck Ag  »

The original purpose of a seed firmer was to make sure that when the seed was dropped into the furrow or seed trench that it would make it to the bottom of the trench and not get stuck in the sidewalls on the way in.

 » Read more about: What is the Purpose of a Seed Firmer?  »

One of the biggest questions that we get asked is whether or not there is an advantage to going with a narrow gauge wheel on a planter.

 » Read more about: Things to consider when deciding between a 3” or 4.5” wheel for your planter  »

Farming is one of the world’s oldest professions, and one of the few that is still as necessary today as it was when it started. While agriculture and farming in North America, as an occupation, has dropped from 90% in Colonial times to only 11% today, it is still the largest industry in the world, employing over 1 billion people globally and generating over $1.3 trillion worth of food annually.

Farmers are some of the hardest working men and women out there and their ability to adapt to changing times has kept them in business for centuries.

 » Read more about: Your 2024 Harvest Guide  »

One of the biggest problems faced by farmers when using a planter is sidewall compaction which can cause uneven emergence and poor germination. Sidewall compaction occurs when your planter’s gauge wheels pack down the soil on either side of the furrow during planting. 

The gauge wheels carry the weight of your planter, which means they are pressing down on the soil which creates significant packing pressure on your soil. Sidewall compaction has been a problem for over 30 years,

 » Read more about: How to Solve Sidewall Compaction  »

Typically when you’re harvesting using a rotor combine you’d have to change concaves from crop to crop to get threshing capabilities for each crop while battling changing crop and weather conditions, which often lead to increased grain loss and dockage of your sample due to poor threshing abilities. 

 » Read more about: How to Solve Rotor Loss, Sieve Loss, Cracked Grain, Unthreshed Material, Increase Ground Speed and cut your fuel costs while combining  »

Harvest is a busy time and the job doesn’t end when you get the grain off the field. Not only do you need to get it into the bin, but you also need to dry it. Some of the methods to get this done have been to use uninterrupted feed dryers, incorporating batch dryers and having in-bin aeration. For the latter, you would apply warm dry air to the bottom of the bin to dry the grain.

 » Read more about: The Air Missile  »

There are obviously two things we need to have to dry grain; one is heat, the other one is airflow; The ThunderDryer provides you with both. The ThunderDryer grain drying system provides you with ample time to set up the system and  dry your grain in your bin. This allows you to take your grain off the field in better conditions and operate your harvest on your own terms. 

Grain drying is a fundamental part of the harvest process,

 » Read more about: The ThunderDryer  »

You would think that buying any type of concave for your combine would help you in threshing or filtering any type of crop you have on your farm (corn, soybean, wheat, canola, etc), but it is much more elaborate than that. In this article we will explain what concaves are, and all the different types there are for all of the crops that we have in Canada and the United States.

 » Read more about: Combine Concaves  »

Here at Thunderstruck Ag Equipment we’re based in Winkler Manitoba. We represent farmer-invented and innovative products  that have not only been tested on their own farms but were designed to make your job easier and more efficient too! We represent products that have certified proof that they  actually work for day-to-day farms.

We carry a number of planting product solutions but among those, we strongly recommend  The Copperhead Closing wheels.

 » Read more about: Closing Wheels for Ag Planting  »

To improve threshing during harvest, farmers and producers have created concave cover plates. These cover plates do or fulfill the same purpose as the filler plates on standard regular concaves. Cover plates are used for small grains. No cover plates are used for harvesting corn, but everything else would require cover plates. 

 » Read more about: Concave Cover Plates  »

Generally, when a combine is having rotor loss it’s due to an overloaded sieve. That may happen when there is a lot of material trying to be separated at once causing grain to be pushed out the back of the combine with the chaff. By using a set of concave disruptors in the separating grate section of your combine, you can cut in the flow of material as they go through the harvester combine. This helps the combine to move the chaff,

 » Read more about: Concave Disruptors  »

The iPaddock Typhoon™ was designed to maximize capacity and minimize downtime. This heavy-duty feed drum is designed with strength and adaptability. It is one of the highest and most efficient combine harvest equipment in the market.

The iPaddock Typhoon™ grabs crops and pulls it through in a continuous even flow, allowing you to go faster and get the crop off fast.

 » Read more about: The iPaddock Typhoon  »

The iPaddock Twister™ chain tensioner is the latest product from iPaddock (a management system farm based in the south east of Western Australia founded in 1992). This chain tensioner solution fixes the problem of the drive chain coming off the feed drum on the Macdon fronts. It has a slot that is cam shaped that makes precise adjustment of chain tension possible with just manual pressure, while preventing the tensioner from sliding loose in the way when it is tightened up again.

 » Read more about: iPaddock Twister  »