Best option ????

[furrowtickler]

Swath ? Lifters ? The swather has tilt and pick up fingers with fore and aft reels.
We have flex headers without lifters that will get under this easily but worried about rocks .


Just not sure what would be best . Ground is wet for sure and will stay that way now for a while . Never had this happen before . Have about 1000 ac down like this , the other 1/2 not nearly as bad .

[seldomseen]

I have had that in the past couple years and no way for the land to dry underneath. Older Macdon swather with Dutch lifters and a pickup reel.Waddled through the mud making ruts all the way but the swather would cut clean and lay a nice swath on the stubble. After a week the field had dried some and combining went good.

[GDR]

Put lifters on and cut it cross ways to the way it's laying starting at the top of the plant and work back if that makes sense won't be as bad as you think. Also works best not to cut the same direction the drill went if you can help it, the ridges just ball up and push mud.

Does take a while to dry underneath, swathing would speed up ground drying and grain drying but either way would work.

[Guest]

I sure wouldn't get in a hurry to lay a big old swath into the mud . lots of cereals are probably severely downgraded here . saw wheat yesterday that has been on the ground for two weeks , not going to end well. we found in 09 the downed standing stuff still dryed days ahead of anything swathed . swathing is a last resort when you think winter is going to set in or that you can combine it in a day or two. this shit weather is far from over as near as I can see . if you're scared of rocks , swathing is a good option , but not till this shit passes . #3 wheat is currently .$.65 deduction here, feed is worse. you guys were real dry before this so I don't think you have to worry about the mud we plowed through here on prior years ? at least not yet , lol

[furrowtickler]

Thanks for the replies so far 👍
Ya , in no rush to swath yet . If anything just a day or two before combine.
I was wondering about the swathing thing and seed ridges as well after just being out there , makes sense for sure to go on a slight angle . Buggers up some fertility plots but that is our last concern now lol .
Got some time to see how weather goes anyway as canola will be priority now when / if we get at er again. The wheat has been down graded a lot now anyway and not worth wrecking combined over till later ...... but hopefully it be ok . Mother Nature has last day anyway on best laid plans . Just nice to have a heads up on what might work or not work .
As I said , this is new to us here , so any advice is appreciated 👍

[furrowtickler]

And yes the ground is wet now but without much more rain it is not nearly as wet or muddy as some of the pictures some of you have posted before or even west of here that had 2 to 3 times the rain we did all year and the last two weeks. So we should be ok as of now , just depends on this weekend again and if forecast holds up to be drier long term.