Corn kernels scatter in every direction as Dennis Bollig drops an ear of corn onto a concrete floor from about 18 feet high. The demonstration symbolizes the kind of force that occurs when a combine head grabs a corn stalk, rips off the ear and pulls it into the machine, he says.

The scattered kernels represent lost yield, Bollig says, which might be the farmer’s share of profits in today’s environment of low prices.

"The amount of processing that has to be done in an instant (at the combine header) is amazing," says Bollig, a northern Iowa farmer and president of Dragotec USA. "We need that power to cover the acres, but we don’t...