Shredding corn stubble during harvest: Insights from four years of on-farm experiments

Corn stubble remaining in the field after grain corn harvest plays a central role in integrated pest and residue management. This study investigated the integration of corn stubble shredding into the harvesting process using the “Horizon Star* III” (HS3) header equipped with flail knives. Over four years and seven experimental sites, the single-step method was compared with conventional post-harvest flail mowing. Under favorable conditions, both methods achieved similarly high shredding intensities for non-overrun corn stubble (>84% fully destroyed). A key advantage of the HS3 was its superior performance in overrun areas, where conventional flail mowers showed a marked decline in effectiveness. The parameter node-to-lowest-working-plane distance, which combines soil surface condition and node-to-ground distance, was identified as a key factor influencing corn stubble shredding intensity. The results demonstrate the potential of the HS3 to enhance field-wide shredding performance and point to promising opportunities for methodological advancement in future research.