9500 upgrade to 9610 or Rotary ?

To get meaningful feedback from this forum, you need to provide us more information:

Acres of each crop cut annually
General location of your operation

Then, do you "need" more capacity or just "want" more capacity, and how much are you willing to pay for it.

Good points ! Typically I straight cut 1200-1500 acres per year in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada. I would like to be able to cut additional acres per hour while producing a clean sample. The time that's available to cut is limited.

I've seen 9610's locally run anywhere from 150K for one that had ~ 450 Sep hours at any auction this summer, down to 85K for ones with around 2000 hours. I have not looked at entry level rotary JDs but my in-law just picked up a 97' 2188 with 1900 Sep hrs for 60K.

Your question is a similar one we face on our farming operation in Kansas. And, I have often thought what would I do. We cut about 1500 acres of wheat, soybeans and milo with a 9410. We push the 9410 and more capacity would be nice. We are happy with the performance in our crop conditions with the maximizer and if we could find a suitable 9610, would stay with that. Going rotary for us is another question, as the first JD STSs were not that great, and it costs a lot to go to the 60 or 70 series. They really would have too much capacity for us at the cost, unless we could find a 9560 STS. THe 2388 is a really attractive rotary alternative to the 9610. For you, it would depend on your crop conditions and if the rotary would do a satisfactory job and that has to be answered by your local guys. I am interested in the feedback from the group, also.

We farm in west central Sask. and ran 9600's for many years. We went to a CTS and CTSII last year and loved them. Smooth running, clean sample and saved the grain much better than the 9600's. We traveled faster and put more clean grain in the tank per hour than the 9600. We grow durum, lentils, peas and chickpeas. If you can find a low hour CTS, you'll be pleased with the results.

Interested feedback on the CTS. Is there any crops that the CTS would not be ideal for ? I had not considered one,, but I'm open to the idea.

Satements like this confuse me. Do you realize how big Saskatchewan is and yet you are able to determine the size of the straw sitting at your desk!!

Sorry for grouping you all together but every-time I drive through saskatchewan or talk to someone from saskatchewan the general consensus is that you have thin straw, and that fact that PARTs of sask are in a drought seems to back it up.

I think you would like a decent 9650STS or 9660STS. We put a 9650STS and a 9610 side by side in the field and they pretty much the same capacity but when you really start pushing it the STS keeps it in the combine better. If we had thinner straw (like you do in Sask) the STS would walk away from a conventional. We run STS machines and have grown (past & present) wheat, barley, canola, peas, lentils, canary seed, oats, & tried some soybeans.

I'd go to a rotary setup, we upgraded from a 9510 to a 9650 sts, its like going from 2 diffrent words, there is no comparison. go the extra step its worth it.

Thank you for the feedback and ideas. The straw in the part of province that I know farm at (Assioboia area) is shorter and thin. Is there any years of the 9650sts that are better than any others ?

Muncher,

Scroll down the JD threads to May 28th. Alex posted all the changes in combines in the last 10 or 15 years. You will see the upgrades and changes in the 50 series STS. To answer your question, in my opinion, the later the better.