Texas Farmer Gains Efficiencies from Superior Equipment
Investment in 30-ft Cyclone Shredder generates significant efficiencies for Johnny Crouch and Kirk Clark in Hockley County, Texas.
In many parts of Texas, the wind seems to blow constantly, and even though it has not been easy, Hockley County farmer Johnny Crouch has learned to mitigate the wind’s negative influence on his land, find equipment that increases his farming efficiency and keep his operation economically sustainable. How he continues to do it is quite impressive.
Crouch has been farming 44 years. Coincidentally, he has been married that long as well.
“I started farming the year I got married to Kristi,” Crouch says. “I bought the land from an older fellow who was 86 at the time. He let me finance it for 15 years. I never thought he would live long enough for me to pay off that loan, but he lived for 16 years after I signed the note. He was almost 100 before he passed. I guess he wanted to make sure he got his money, and he did.”
Tight knit farming with family and irrigation
Along with his brother, Larry, Crouch also farms with his son-in-law, Kirk Clark. Each year the trio work nearly 7,000 acres. The seemingly never ending, pancake-flat, hipped-up row crop ground surrounding John and Kristi’s home is dotted with a few pump jacks here and there. The pump jacks are pulling up crude black gold from thousands of feet below the topsoil.
Years ago, the government provided trees to various Texas landowners to create “wind-breaks”. Crouch has one just west of his farm shop – the only trees in sight.
Water is the lifeblood for yield-busting cotton. Ultra-efficient drip irrigation systems deliver it to 70% of their acreage from wells a few hundred feet in depth.
“With the current price of cotton and high-input costs, we have to have good yields to make any profit,” says Crouch. “We really ‘pour-on-the-coals’ through our drip systems. If our dryland cotton shows potential, that’s a bonus, but we’ve been in a drought going on 4 years now. We need rain badly.”
Investing in premium products to yield higher efficiencies
Crouch usually plants cotton around the middle of May. He will fire up his two on-board module strippers around October or November each fall. The two massive machines pull fiber, burs and any remaining leaf matter from each plant, leaving nothing but bare stalks and 5,000-lb round modules of cotton lint in their wake. The cost of the strippers was exorbitantly high, but the efficiency they brought to JK Crouch Farms’ annual harvest was worth every penny.
“These machines dramatically increased our harvest efficiency,” says Crouch. We eliminated tractors, module builders and labor the first year we used them. We are constantly looking for ways to become more efficient.”
That constant drive to increase that efficiency is what lead Crouch to a unique piece of equipment he has been relying on for two years now. He first saw the Cyclone shredder being used by a farming neighbor. The size of the machine initially caught his eye, but when he saw it in operation, purchasing one became inevitable.
Manufactured by Major Equipment, Co., the MJ30-920 model Cyclone can shred 10 rows of 40 inch cotton stalks in one pass.
“The Cyclone has a galvanized finish and is much faster than the old batwing-style shredder we’ve had for a while. I can cut stalks across an entire farm in one day now,” says Crouch. “I’ve cut 3,000 acres of stalks with it and the blades still look new. I have to keep that old batwing shredder out of the Cyclone’s way!”
Major Cyclone reduces labor, fuel and maintenance costs
It may be hard to quantify in dollars, but Crouch knows that between his two on-board module strippers and the Cyclone, his farming efficiency has improved at least two-fold.
“It’s definitely reduced our labor and fuel costs,” adds Crouch. “The strength, stamina and value the Cyclone has given us is unmatched in my opinion. Although I rarely use it because we have so much room out here, the Cyclone has an efficient folding option for easy transport and storing.”
The Cyclone is manufactured with Strenx® 700 MC structural steel. It has 10 rotors, each with four blades made of high-grade, hardened steel that deliver a powerful ‘blender-style’ mulch, but does it with 50% less horsepower than is required from similar size shredders.
Levelland, Texas, is not in a boll weevil management program area, so they do not have a “destroy date” for cotton stalks.
“In fact, that was another reason I bought the Cyclone. Those cotton stalks help keep our topsoil from being blown away by the sand and the wind,” says Crouch. “We cut them right before we plant. It saves me two weeks in time that I wasn’t getting with the batwing shredder.”
Shredder increases decomposition and reduces erosion
Crouch also likes the Cyclone because of the fine mulch and even distribution of foreign matter it disperses, which leads to faster decomposition and getting nutrients and moisture back into the soil quicker. “One of the best things about the Cyclone is it leaves the residue evenly across the field, unlike putting it on a couple of rows like a traditional shredder,” says son-in-law Kirk Clark.
Another advantage of the Cyclone is the minimal maintenance on the rotary blade system. “We’ve had the Cyclone shredder for two years now, and we haven’t had to touch the blades yet. The other shredders required a whole lot more maintenance,” added Kirk.
Some of Crouch’s land has been in the Conservation Reserve Program for several years. When rain finally comes, he will also use the Cyclone to keep that grassland mowed and in order.
“I worked with Cody Reep at Western Equipment Company on one small problem we had when we realized the Cyclone came with rollers on the back that seemed to disturb our topsoil,” explains Crouch. “Because it’s so sandy here, we don’t want to disturb that if we don’t have to.”
Through the good folks at Major Equipment Co., Reep brought a set of gauge wheels to replace the rollers.
“We haven’t had a problem since, and the gauge wheels disturb far less top soil, so it’s worked out great,” adds Crouch.
As Johnny, Kristi, Larry, and Kirk prepare to plant Johnny’s 45th cotton crop, he continues looking for ways to further increase efficiencies like he has with the on-board module stripper and the Cyclone shredder.
“If you’re trying to implement no-till, minimum-till or conservation till, this is a piece of equipment that you need,” says Kirk. That and rain.
