Boost Productivity with MacDon

In Beason, Illinois, Jim Brown and his son Jared grow corn and soybeans on the farm that has been in their family for many years. In the 1930s, Jim’s grandparents, Tom and Venice Edwards moved to Beason from Kentucky and purchased land to begin farming. Later on, Jim’s father, Jack Brown, rented some acres of his own and began building up their operation.

Eventually Jim had the opportunity to purchase and continue the farm that his grandparents and his father started. Now, Jared is beginning the fourth generation of the farm.  

Although Tom swore he would always farm with horses, the Brown’s operation has always kept up with the advancements in equipment and technology. Jim and Jared have always relied on Central Illinois Ag for the best tools to make their operation as efficient as possible, which is where their MacDon draper head comes in.

During one harvest over 10 years ago, Jim had noticed that his neighbor running a MacDon head was able to start cutting beans earlier in the morning and keep going an hour later at night after Jim would have to quit due to the beans getting tough. With being able to start earlier and quit later, increasing productivity in a day’s time was something Jim was interested in. 

He decided to ride with his neighbor one day and was instantly impressed. That next spring, they purchased their first MacDon and have had one ever since. Today they run a FD135, which is the third on the farm, and are continually pleased with its performance.

According to Jim and Jared, the main benefit to having the MacDon is the even feeding of the beans as they fall onto the belt. “With our previous head, beans would frequently bunch up so we would have to run the reels faster to feed in the crop, which was hard on the machine and caused the beans to pop around and shatter,” says Jim. “The MacDon, however, is much gentler and tips them in with no force.”

Additionally, Jared likes how well the head follows the contour of the ground, and how easy it is to make adjustments to field conditions if needed. Overall, they believe that the MacDon creates less strain on not only crop, but also the operator.

To Jim, the investment has been worth it when it comes to increased productivity during harvest. “The payback is definitely justified; in dryer beans we save 1-2 bushels per acre through less shatter,” says Jim. “I would say we have had a three-year payback on this head with increased bushels and efficiency.”

Jim will be harvesting his 43rd crop this fall and is happy to rely on MacDon once again to get the job done.