How to harvest thin crops...

[TOM4CWB]

AS I came back to Killam from Edmonton yesterday, I saw some of the first ripe fields swathed this season.

Unfortunately with the rain, even though they looked like 15bu/ac a week ago, now they fell right through the nonexistant stubble onto the ground, even though it was a reasonablely wide machine.

How, when double swathing or with a wide pull type, do we prevent this?

[wedino]

Park the swathers, install air reel on straight cut combine header. My 2 cents worth after dealing with drought during 1980's.

[wedino]

Tom you have a 22 foot air reel would it fit on a JD 224 straight header 24 feet with some adaptions.

[TOM4CWB]

Kernel,

I guess the reel could be extended with some work... was set up for 922...

Give me a call if you are around Edmonton east and want to have a look...

[rockpile]

How to harvest thin crops?
You must all be from north of where we farm and have never seen a year like this before. We had several in the 1980's, and this year isn't so great either. Forget about swathing, you'll never pick it up, even a good dew will cause the swath to stick to the ground. Air reels can be funny - in a light crop, especially barley, you can't get the air flow low enough that it doesn't blow the heads out of the header (you'll find them on the roof of the cab). What we do is unbolt the cutterbar and attach a rod weeder instead (just kidding). The best thing you can do is invest in a float kit, put some sturdy skids on a straight cut header, and be patient. It takes longer to harvest a 15 bu. crop than a 50 bu. crop. From experience, I can tell you that no matter what you try, you will be disappointed. Also watch your air - take your crop a little dirty, you'd be surprised at how many light kernels you can retain. Best of luck guys, how does the market look for drought tolerant wheat seed next spring? I might have some.
Rockpile

[TOM4CWB]

Rockpile,

PBR on seed will be a headache... common seed is likely needed this year, and seed companies don't seem to be real interested yet in talking about this issue.

This year will really test the seed system... If most varieties grown are is PBR, (Like with wheat) then selling common seed will be scary to say the least. It is against the law to say what variety it is even on non-PBR varieties... yet this is not reasonable... reasonable isn't part of this year I guess...

[TOM4CWB]

Pickup Reels;

When I went South today a JD service guy had what seemed like a good idea...

He said that a few years ago in Sask. he was involved in making pickup reels into bat reels.

They went to the local hardware store and bought house siding, he said it was very light, and a person could pick the best siding to fit the reel fingers... with the bottom of the fingers fitting into the formed grove on the bottom.

Sounds Like an Idea to try anyway, should be cheap, and a person could colour co-ordinate!!!