Current Status

Right now, there are four PDF machines being used. Since these machines are hydraulic driven, they need to have the hydraulic oil in order to operate. Each one of the PDF’s has a 30 gallon tank that supplies hydraulic oil for the machine. I know from personal experience that two of the machines will go through an entire tank of hydraulic oil almost every three days, and I have not seen them last much longer than four days. It varies only slightly with the terrain. The more hills that a field contains, the harder the machines have to work, which makes them use more hydraulic oil. The other two machines leak only slightly less. This leaking is caused from so many gaskets, seals, and hoses on the machines leaking. Of course, these seals and hoses can be fixed and they are fixed every year prior to detasseling season. As soon as these machines get into the field and are operated for only a short amount of time, they begin leak oil from the places that were just tended to. One major component that seems to be a problem on these PDF’s is the hydraulic hubs on each of the tires. Since the machine is hold, so is the hydraulic system is these machines. They need to be tended to all of the time and they are very expensive when one goes out. This maintenance costs a lot of money and would not be necessary to do every year on a new Hagie detasseling machine. If the mechanics at the plant do not have to spend as much time working on detasseling machines, it means they will have more time to work on machines inside the plant that handle the corn after the harvest.

This loss of necessary fluids is extremely inefficient, especially considering the cost of the hydraulic oil. Hydraulic oil costs just around $10 a gallon, and about $14-15 a gallon for premium oil. That means that Remington Seeds is spending over $600 a week on just two machines when they are running, and this is only for hydraulic oil. Motor oil is about $4 a quart, and each machine has needed several quarts of oil each day just to keep them from running low and burning up the motor. This adds up to a lot of money when the detasseling season usually lasts two to three weeks.

The daily cost of keeping these PDF’s running does not end with the cost of the fluids. The mechanics take time out of their busy schedule working back at the shop to come out and fix the machines and fill them with fluids. Of course, things will always go wrong with equipment, but a new machine will have far less problems when it comes to major components.