I have seen some customers just hang of heavy piece of scrap steel bar, rail, etc the width of the tire by chains from the bottom of the corn head in front of each tire. Just get the stalk leaning away, does not need to be fully flattened. But harvest with the head as high as possible.

Speaking of that - I have been looking at corn stalks along the side of the many roads I have been traveling and have noticed that there is quite a wide difference between hybrids on how high the ear is held on the plant. There seems to be a foot or more difference in ear height between some fields.

So even if you have a tall plant you may have to run the head low on some varieties to catch the ears. For strip till in continuous corn I would recommend a hybrid which holds the ears up high. I noticed in my seed suppliers catalog that they DO specify ear height characteristics ( = high, medium & low). Again cast iron rolls which do NOT leave a short sharp stalk spike work the best - just aggressive enough to get the ear into the head. Then the rest of the plant pushes over easily in the tire rows and keeps much of the vegetation in the air on the non tire rows. jmho.

Jim at Dawn