Can dry uncured grain?

[poorboy]

Sitting at 5% done my harvest in S Ab. Crops are not mature and have had no drying weather for weeks.

Anyone have experience in harvesting and drying canola that had never got to dry yet? Still testing 16.

What about wheat that still has 30% soft seeds with a tinge of green? Frost has damaged the late wheat and it is real slow to mature. Does frost affect how fast a crop drys down?

Would like to harvest something, but would hate to lose the crop that is there. At this rate it is going to take 2 or more weeks to hit mature grain. Freezes almost every night.

Any advice on harvesting peas that were 4'tall and now are 3" tall and sitting on wet soil. Can't seem to find a system that works. Tryed swathing when dry out and they shell badly and when the dew is on I can't seem to cut them. Have a macdon header. Peas are dry at least.

[TOM4CWB]

Poorboy,

For pasted peas the best system if lots of vines... is a stripper header.

Pulls the vines off just above the ground where they are most brittle. We have taken goose packed peas that no other system would even touch. Like a giant 'vacum' once the pea mat gets going into the stripper it just pulls the vines in.

[KeephillsCowMan]

Sitting at 20% in NW AB hopefully this weather holds.

Can't offer any advice on the drying but the peas are easy. We grow 40-10s and they get 5-7' of vine and are about a 3-4" mat right now. We use a rake-up pickup to just pull them out of the ground. Takes a while at 14' (would like a bigger one) but gets every last one even where the deer and snow pound them in. Tried straight cutting and swathing but with no luck either. Never thought of a stripper header. Good idea Tom. Another thing for the wish list.

[poorboy]

Tom,

I never thought of a stripper header for peas. Is there much of a risk from rock damage?

Also a good suggestion on the rakeup. Do you remove the tiresÉ

[seedsman]

Poorboy, you can use a Sund pickup on flat peas, especailly if they have been down for a while and the stems break off easy. There are lots of 22' units used for edible beans. Many will also have perforated bottoms under the table auger.

[TOM4CWB]

Poorboy,

Normally the rocks just get kicked ahead of the header... if they are real big they can bend the fingers on the stripper rotor.

We ran a 28 foot CX and I didn't get rocks up the feeder house of the Deere. Just reversed the header when there was a rock... and it would usually end up in the left corner behind the auger... easily removed. Most of the time the rocks do not make it into the header as the rotor is moving counter (up)to forward direction and the rocks seldom make it up and in... instead shooting ahead.

Pentagon in Lacombe has a couple of 20 foot units for $10-11K. Shelbourne Renyolds machines. If the peas are thin or standing well... then the stripper does not work near as well.

At night watch like a hawk... the peas are hard to thrash out and are easly thrown out the rotor. Does not often show up on loss monitor because still in pods. Yeild monitor tells the story if big losses... it tells you in a hurry. I could work late at night with the stripper doing peas... feed is all they usually would grade as they had been out so long and were bleached.

[KeephillsCowMan]

Poorboy, We usually just set the tines to tickle the ground. I leave the tires on as is easier to follow ground. Never had a problem with rocks but we roll all the pea ground. It would probably just roll it ahead. Sometimes does wrap on the spiders but only had that problem when it was wet enough to plug the cylinder. Best of luck.