Rural Heritage October/November 2025

The Agri-Flex 184 made its first appearance last year. It is a horizontal-type machine that resembles the older, small machines like Allis-Chalmers and John Deere from my childhood. Though still a prototype, it has a sleeker, more refined look to it this year. It sports an 80-inch grain head and a two row corn head. A very useful and serviceable machine that shows the hours of time and thought put into it. Parts are readily available using common bearings, belts and pullieys found at most repair places. This makes repairs much easier than trying to chase down antique, hard-to-find parts from old or junked machines. This year, a second combine came on the scene. The Advance & Hilltop Machine company introduced their “Navigator” prototype. This combine uses a

form of “Axial” design -- a more vertical style found in modern combines of the day. It, too, has a serviceable grain head as well as a two-row corn head. These machines, although a bit different style, performed well. The “crop” they harvested for demonstration was a small field of terminated oats. There was no grain on the heads, but the plants were dead and made a good simulation of ripe oats. There was plenty of straw to run through the combines. The men, designers if you will, have put a lot of thought into these machines. They took a step and looked back at the old, almost forgotten technologies of the older well-made machines from yesteryear. They looked at better weed seed removal and better grain retention. What good is it to go fast and leave a high percentage of the grain kernels laying on the

AgVance Systems demonstrated their prototype pull-type combine, the Comet 2.5 with the Navigator floating draper head.

October/November 2025

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