Everything You Need to Know About the Stalk Devastator

If you’re looking for a way to combat tough cornstalks, protect equipment tires, and improve your farm’s crop yields, look no further than the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator. This cutting-edge technology is changing how farmers deal with stalks after harvest—and it could transform your own farming practices.

What Is the Stalk Devastator?

The Yetter Stalk Devastator is the most advanced and rigid stalk roller on the market. Its field-proven design is shown to protect tracks and tires during harvest and effortlessly speed up stalk residue breakdown to accelerate post-harvest processes and ensure you’re ready for planting in the spring. Here’s how it works:

Steel rollers are mounted beneath the combine corn head. Because it’s a roller attachment, it doesn’t have any effect on the way your corn head operates and doesn’t require any additional horsepower to run.

The Devastator features spring-loaded rolling action that knocks stalks to the ground and then crimps them before the combine tires pass over. This protects all farming equipment and tires, including those of tractors, trucks, and tillage equipment. Each Devastator roller unit covers two to three rows of corn.

In addition to stomping the stalk, the flat steel bars are welded to the stalk rollers, so along with crimping, the Devastator also splits the cornstalks. This accelerates microbial breakdown.

The Yetter Stalk Devastator fits most corn head brands and configurations, including AGCO-Gleaner, Challenger, Massey-Ferguson, Case IH, Claas, Drago, Fantini, Geringhoff, Lexion, Capello, John Deere, and New Holland. There are models available for chopping corn heads, non-chopping corn heads, narrow row spacing, and wide row spacing.

The Benefits of Using the Stalk Devastator

If you’re searching for stalk stompers for corn heads, look no further than the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator. Here are several of the biggest benefits:

Damage Protection

As you know, today’s hybrid cornstalks are tough, rigid, and brutal. They have the ability to slice right through rubber tires and tracks, leaving you with combines, tractors, and grain carts that are out of commission in the middle of harvest.

If you consider that tire replacement can cost as much as $7,200 for fronts and $3,000 for the rears, damage to one or two tires per season can put a massive dent in your bottom line. But with the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator, you can protect your equipment from premature replacement. The spring-loaded steel rollers effortlessly flatten stalks so that your tires are safe.

Accelerated Decomposition

Preserving tires is one of the most immediate benefits of using the Stalk Devastator, but it’s not the only one. The Devastator is also a residue management tool.

When rolling over cornstalks, the attachment also crimps them by making slits in the stalks, creating a channel for air and water to penetrate. As a result, nutrients are released into the ground and the microbial activity is accelerated. This leads to a faster decomposition process that reduces or even eliminates the need to use more expensive, higher-horse powered chopping corn heads.

Ease of Operation

You don’t need any expensive equipment or a professional installer to use the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator. A 3/4-inch wrench and impact socket are all that are required for installation. With a basic mounting kit, you can quickly and easily install the Devastator on most corn head models. Best of all, it won’t interfere with head cart trailers. And when you aren’t using them, the rollers can be locked up for transportation or storage.

Durability and Longevity

The Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator is designed with spring-loaded adjustable down pressure and solid steel construction that ensures total reliability and durability. When you invest in a Devastator, you can expect to get many years of use. And as long as you maintain it properly, the performance will remain consistent from one harvest season to the next.

High ROI

After a three-year study conducted by Beck’s Practical Farm Research, the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator earned its prestigious PFR Proven designation. This indicates a positive yield increase during the three-year span of use and testing.

In the study, the Yetter Stalk Devastator was compared with other ground stompers and stalk stompers. The average yield improvement increased by 3.3 bushels per acre with no-till systems and an additional 9.3 bushels per acre when compared with conventional till systems. Because of the benefits mentioned above, including fewer passes, tire protection, and higher yields, the Yetter 5000 clearly separates itself as the best-in-class solution.

What Farmers Are Saying About Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator

It’s easy to explain what the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator does and how it could benefit farmers, but how does it actually work for real-world farmers? For the past decade, our stalk devastators have changed the game for farmers like Nate Young in Illinois:

“New hybrid stalks simply do not decompose like stalks used to. We tried stomper-style attachments and were completely disappointed—there was no measurable success at all. Then about seven years ago, we switched to the Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator and saw complete tire protection for all equipment entering the field, as well as much better stalk decomposition,” Young says. “When the time came to upgrade corn heads, we knew no matter what corn head we ended up with, it would definitely be equipped with Devastators!”

And if you’re worried about how the Devastator holds up in different conditions, consider what a customer going by the username Deertech14 has to say:

“We had just about the wettest harvest on record last year. Literally slogged through so much mud that it got packed in by the tires on the combine and pushed the side shields into the belts and pulleys. We were scared we would have to take the Devastators off, but they worked just like normal. Remember they run on the stalk and not on the ground. So far, I have yet to find conditions they won’t work in.”

What Farmers Are Saying About Yetter 5000 Stalk Devastator

At RangeLine, we offer a variety of farming equipment and parts, including combine parts, colter blades, disc blades, drivehead, fertilizer application, grain drill parts, hardware, hay tool parts, LED lights, manure injection planter parts, mower blades, tillage, tractor parts, and Yetter farm equipment. Contact us today to learn more!