The Clarke Knife Roll is designed and manufactured for farmers who need aggressive residue management. With its knife layout and its clear auger path, the Clarke Knife Roll does a good job of promoting, and excelling, the breakdown of stalks, benefiting no-till farmers. The Clarke Knife Roll is manufactured with American Made materials, giving farmers confidence, and reliability, they can count on.
There are three main components to the Clarke Knife Roll: 1. The Front Nose Casting, 2. The Roller Tube, 3. The Knife. Each of these components play a vital role in helping the Clarke Knife Roll be successful. Let's explore them below.
1. The Front Nose Casting
The Front Nose Casting of the Clarke Knife Roll plays a vital role in its success. The casting is designed to pull the stalks into the knife roll. As the auger spins, it encourages the stalk to not be bulldozed over, but rather pulled in so the stalk can be mushroomed open, and cut, to allow for maximum residue decay. This especially helps in down corn conditions. The front nose castings are so essential to the success of the Clarke Knife Roll that we decided to manufacture the whole casting right in the great state of Iowa. This allows us to provide an American Made product that will last.
2. The Roller Tube
The Roller tube of the Clarke Knife Roll does essentially two things. One, it's tight fit over the nose casting and binocular housing forces the knives to stay concentric to the front output shafts of the gearbox. Two, it provides a precisely laser cut, sturdy, backing to the knives. These tubes are so integral to the functionality of the Clarke Knife Roll that we manufacture them in Iowa.
3. The Knife
Like any knife roll, the knife of the Clarke Knife Roll is the most important component. The layout of the knives can be seen above, and if you want to see pictures of what the stalks look like after the Clarke Knife Roll goes over a field, I would highly encourage you to check out the "Who is Clarke?" page under the "About Us" tab. The Clarke Knife Roll has an opening every quarter of a revolution so the stalk can get back up into the roller. The next quarter turn cuts the stalk and then a window between the rollers opens again. In a full revolution, the stalk is cut four times and everything goes through the roller instead of getting pushed up front at the auger spirals. This is especially important with large heads, and while combining in adverse conditions. The knives of the Clarke Knife Roll are heat treated and tungsten coated (in Iowa). This allows our knives to last a long time, and the fact that they are reversible, you will get double wear out of them.
How the residue looks in the field depends on the speed of the rollers compared to the ground speed. If you run the rollers fast compared to the ground speed, the stalk residue will be chewed up. If you slow the roller speed down and travel with a higher ground speed it will leave the stalk attached to the root ball because the ear is snapped off near the front of the stalk roller. If running at 5 mph, you will get residue 14 to 16 inches long, cut open every 3 to 4 inches, and ripped for better decay. The residue is still long enough for a rake and baler to pick up. This knife roll is not a substitute for a chopping head.
These knife rolls for Deere 40 and 90 series corn heads are an option for no-tillers who want better stalk destruction without chopping the stalks so fine they blow away. The Clarke Knife Roll offers a number of advantages over Deere's cast rollers. The knife blades do an excellent job of cutting through corn stalks and will last for several years before they need to be replaced. The knife blades on Deere stalk rollers usually work ok the first year, but after that they get dull and it's expensive to sharpen or replace them. If you are interested in the Clarke Knife Roll, type KIT99991885 into the search bar above to get pricing, or give us a call at 888-765-9846!