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Cob collector could be a treasure finder
*****pull quote****** "A few years ago we did not have any market for cobs, cob processors had all they wanted," Stukenholtz said. "Now we have gone to a number that is astronomical." By Doug Rich Whether you call it trash or crop residue, from now on you will be calling it a commodity. Ty and Jay Stukenholtz, brothers from Nebraska City, Neb., have developed a device for collecting this commodity without slowing down harvest. Specifically, they are collecting corn cobs, but they are fine tuning their cob collector to pick up any crop residue, from wheat straw to wild flowers. The twin brothers first became interested in developing a cob collector when it was assigned as a senior design project for agricultural engineering students at the University of Nebraska. "That is when we learned about the concept for collecting cobs and the need for cobs coming out of Omaha," Ty Stukenholtz said. "We saw this as a way to get involved in the family farm with a little extra income." Cob Collector It has taken the Stukenholtz broters 10 years to develop their cob collector and they are still fine tuning it. The first year they built an entire combine from components they purchased to adapt their combine to the collector. They harvested 200 acres with that first machine, then cut it up and went back to the drawing board. The next year they copied what they did the first year, just made it 50 percent bigger. Jay Stukenholtz said they spent a lot of time the second year developing their system for cleaning the cobs and blowing them into the collection tank. "The concepts we are using now came from that second machine," Jay Stukenholtz said. They started out developing a combine that would adapt to the collector and then gradually moved to developing a cob collector that would adapt to any combine. Basically, they built a specialty combine for harvesting corn and cob. "We did not care about harvesting anything else," Ty Stukenholtz said. Ty and Jay spent a year developing a cleaner that attaches to the back of any combine. While they were working this attachment they pulled a wagon behind the combine to catch the cobs. "We knew we did not want to pull a wagon from our ear corn days," Jay Stukenholtz said. The following couple of years we spent refining the tank on top to collect cobs and residue," Jay Stukenholtz said. The unit they have now can be put on just about any make of combine. Basically, everything that runs through the combine passes over a clean boot, a sieve and pan arrangement, where they sort out and blow out what they don't want to keep. Then an auger moves what is left over into an air system that takes it to the tank on top of the grain tank. The stock combine puts corn into the grain tank just like it always did, but another system that bolts onto the combine sorts through the chaff that is normally dumped on the ground and sorts out the cobs which go into another tank. Even with their attachment the combine can run through the field at the same speed as before. To accommodate the added weight and demand on the combine they run an eight row head instead of a 12 which the combine was designed to use. "The grain tank and the cob tank fill up at the same time," Ty Stukenholtz said. The cob tank is mounted on top of the grain extensions, which the Stukenholtz brothers can raise and lower automatically from inside the cab. "Because of the extra height we had to make auto folding grain extensions," Ty Stukenholtz said. The cob tank is soft sided and they can fold it up or down as needed. When it is time to unload, the cob tank automatically extends to one side of the combine and a live bottom in the tank augers the cobs onto the ground or into a cart. It only takes 30 seconds to unload the cob tank. Grain Cart The Stukenholtz brothers have developed a specialized grain cart with two tanks for hauling cobs and grain. A tank on top of the grain slides off the one side and the bottom tank is filled with grain. The top tank slides back into place and it is filled with cobs or whatever residue is being collected. The grain cart hauls both the grain and cobs to the edge of the field where the grain can be loaded onto a truck and the cobs can be piled on the edge of the field or put into a truck. Their grain cart is huge. It can hold 1,250 bushels of grain and has a 1,000 cubic foot cob tank on top. Although designed to harvest cobs, their equipment can be modified to harvest just about any type of residue. They have used it to harvest wild flower and native grass seed. The residue from these crops still contains a lot of seed and growers collect it so they can run it through the combine again. They have had many requests to try their machine in wheat and they expect to do that next summer. "We are not sure we can collect all of the wheat crop residue and keep the combine productive," Ty Stukenholtz said. "We may have to collect as much as possible and put the rest on the field. We don't know for sure until we get out there and do it." When Ty and Jay Stukenholtz began working on their cob collector they had a market in nearby Omaha. That company made an industrial solvent using corn cobs, but it has closed and the manufacture of that solvent has moved to China. "Cattle feed is the steady niche market for us now," Ty Stukenholtz said. "Now that they can't get ear corn, feedlots in Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, and Oklahoma are using cobs." Corn cobs are used for chemical carriers and even in cosmetics, but the big demand will come from energy production. Coal fired plants can mix corn cobs with coal and coal fired ethanol plants could utilize cobs for coal displacement. Jay Stukenholtz said if the average power plant was to replace 40 percent of their coal they would need 50,000 acres of cobs. The big demand will be from cellulosic ethanol production. This system can capture three-fourths of a ton per acre on average. "A few years ago we did not have any market for cobs, cob processors had all they wanted," Ty Stukenholtz said. "Now we have gone to a number that is astronomical." Until the last few years, clean cobs have been our market, " Jay Stukenholtz said. "Now we are looking at collecting any residue. As much residue as we can collect without hurting the combine." Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com. *********photo cutlines************ stukenholtz01, 02 COB COLLECTOR last 10 years refining their cob collector. The market for corn cobs could explode when cellulosic ethanol comes online. (Journal photo by Doug Rich.) stukenholtz03, 04,05 UNLOADING onto any combine. The collection tank fits on top of the grain tank and can be unloaded in 30 seconds. (Journal photo by Doug Rich.) VIDEO MONITOR Ty and Jay Stukenholtz have placed a video monitor inside the cab of their combine. Normally the grain tank and cob tank fill up at the same time. (Journal photo by Doug Rich.)
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