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A clear vision

Winter 2013

Rain. Too much or too little can be the bane of any farmer's existence. Dean Mount of R&R Mount Farms has experienced both, but has found a way for his crawler excavators to balance out each extreme for the family operation. He recently used his two Doosan DX340LC excavators during Iowa's historically hot and dry summer of 2012 to correct problems resulting from the devastatingly wet ones of 2007 and 2008.

Protecting the harvest

Partners with his brother, Clint, and father, Rick, the Mounts farm a total of 3,000 acres in the fertile, rolling hills of southwestern Iowa. One particular section of 380 acres forms a mosaic of corn and soybean fields that hug the West Nishnabotna River. Five years ago, the swollen river jumped its banks and surged through a levy, swallowing the harvest. Another soggy year followed in 2008, and nearly every June after has brought monsoon-like rains. With no grass stand, weeds and volunteer willow trees took root and grew fast in the wet areas.

By 2012, some willows towered 25 feet high. While the dry spell — the worst drought since 1936 — had stressed most of Iowa's crops, conditions were ideal for clearing the fields' ditches, erecting a stronger cross dike alongside a creek bed and resloping a mile-long levy constructed by a previous landowner. The excavators, each configured with 2.5-cubic-yard, 54-inch buckets with hydraulic clamps, formed a powerful one-two punch for removing trees, clearing brush and reshaping the dike and levy walls.

By clearing the overgrowth bordering the fields, Mount plans to replant grass and control future growth to better monitor field drainage. "If you can't see the drainage out of this bottom field, and you have a problem, it will drown out on a rainy year and you'll lose your crop," Mount says.

Duping a dozer

R&R Mount Farms has tended fields outside of Riverton, Farragut and Shenandoah for three generations. The family knows firsthand the kind of devastation that spring storms can bring to crops and property. In the flood of 2007, Mount's grandfather abandoned his farmhouse as it rapidly became an island. With more storms brewing, a lightning bolt sparked a fire that completely destroyed it.

His grandfather always preferred dozers to perform clearing on the farm. "Grandpa thought excavators would be a maintenance nightmare, but I wanted to try them and I've had a good experience. To me, it would've been a nightmare using a dozer for this kind of work, and it would've gotten stuck in some areas," he says.

Mount says his excavator and key attachments provide more versatility than a dozer for removing thick growth. Unlike a dozer blade, the bucket provides more precise control for digging out trunks and scooping trees, stumps and root balls. The clamp secures the material, allowing him to place the roots on the outer edges of the brush piles for rinsing from the rain and better drying before burning. The clamp and front window guards combine to reduce the threat of vegetation causing cab damage. "They've saved my bottom window a couple of times," Mount says.

Mount says his setup keeps his worksite cleaner and increases the excavator's productivity. "I always want a clamp if I'm clearing trees. It speeds up the work and you can shake the dirt out of a root ball and place a tree higher. With a dozer, your pile would be three times as wide and full of dirt that won't burn," says Mount who likes the hydraulic attachment's convenience. "You push a button and it's out of your way for dirt work and digging deep holes, but it's there at the touch of your thumb if you dig up something that needs moved," he adds.

Mount cleared the entire levy wall by positioning the excavator on the levy's shelf. The machine's 22-foot digging depth allowed him to easily access vegetation in the adjoining ditch below. In the final passes, he reshaped the wall by pulling dirt to the levy's top edge. "We moved the dirt up with the excavators and the dozer rolled it downhill so it would settle at a slope that we can eventually mow or spray," Mount says.

Working in tandem with the dozer revealed more advantages. "The excavator's engine is so quiet that I didn't have to open a door or window to hear the tracks on the dozer coming," Mount says. Fuel efficiency has improved also, as the excavator uses approximately 8 gallons of fuel per hour compared to 12 gallons per hour in the dozer.

Operating in comfort

Once harvest is complete, the excavators will deliver the horsepower to Mount's solo venture doing house demolition, digging basements, tiling and clearing ditches and river bottoms. Operating in a comfortable cab with controls within reach is important to Mount. "It's easy to navigate the LCD screen and find your diagnostics. The cup holder is in a good spot and I don't have to turn around to control the radio. There aren't a lot of buttons to use," Mount says.

Building a Doosan tradition

After owning and renting competitive excavators in previous years, Mount purchased a used DX300LC in 2008 from a Doosan owner in North Carolina. He sold it to a Nebraska farmer last year and purchased two used DX340LCs. "Doosan looked like a high-quality machine when I studied them and talked to people who were knowledgeable about them. I've owned and rented competitive machines and I don't see the point in spending the extra money when I have this quality," Mount says.

The 75,000- to 80,000-pound size is best suited to Mount for securing transport permits and maneuverability in wet terrain. Those reasons are significant factors in his upcoming trade-in of the DX340LCs to purchase a DX350LC from his new Doosan dealer, Bobcat of Omaha. "I'm not going to spend the money on a used machine when I could buy a new Doosan model for the price they want for a higher-priced competitive machine. This is my opportunity to get into a new one and be set up for a very long time," Mount says.

And, the Doosan brand has won the stamp of family approval. "Grandpa said, ‘it's a lot nicer and I don't have to do trees with the bulldozer.' That's what it's for, and since we have lot of bottom ground, we need one around," Mount concludes.