logistics of windrowing oats....

rockyridgefarm

Well-known Member
Hey all,

I'm trying windrowing my oats this year. No one has done it in a long time, so not really any local knowledge on when to do it.

The straw is nearly all turned with very few stems that are still green. The heads are nearly all yellow as well. Locals that direct cut oats figure they'll be trying them in a week, week and a half. Is now the time to drop them into a windrow? How much will they dry once they're cut?
 
They'll dry in the windrow... If you leave
them until the straw is dried down then you
may as well straight cut them, there will
be shelling loss if you leave them too
long...

Last year the neighbour here swathed oats
that were still green, they dried down
eventually, just takes longer, and of cut
way to early will lose a little weight...

If they are a week away from straight
cutting I'd be windrowing them right away

.
 
If you cup your hands together around the heads, rub them together and they shell out easily, you"ll wish you already started cutting.
 
I'l start first thing in the morning. The weather hasn't been good for cutting up 'til now anyway. It spit rain off and on all day. Tomorrow is my first opportunity. It isn't supposed to rain again 'til Saturday.

Thanks for the advice
 
We always swathed oats when they were green. Might take an extra day or two, but there was minimum shell out, oats had a heavier test weight, and the cattle loved to pick through that green straw when we spread it for bedding. We put out lots of straw as they seemed to eat about half of it; good roughage for them.
 
I would guess, without seeing them, right now.

Back in the day dad wanted to leave thrm lay 5 days, always got longer because of rain.....

I tend to get combining the windrow 3 days or more after swathing, depends on the grain of course. Oats tends to be good to go here pretty
quick, its getting the weeds or the under seeded green stuff to dry a bit.

One year I combined the wheat and it was a point too high on moisture, dad was mad to take the discount.... That night we got a 5 inch
dumping of rain, the reason I combined was the forecast of rain but I wasn't expecting that much. Anyhow the straw was all washed around and
the fields were ponds, weeks later we hardly got any straw baled it was such a mess.Turned out in my favor that year!

Paul
 
So I couldn't start until about 11 am when the dew burned off. I got 9 acres cut, but am having some troubles.

First off the straw is wrapping on the reel really bad. I've gotten out and unwrapped it a dozen times.

Second and more frustrating, the straw is getting between the drive roller and the draper, causing the V-belt to slip. I've unwrapped and dug the straw out a half dozen times. It's a real pain.

Third, and why I'm back in the house is the little 4 cylinder Perkins that powers this thing keeps losing prime and dying. I'll go back out in a little bit and try to figure out why. I've changed the fuel filter and verified that the electric pump is working.



mvphoto24751.jpg
 
Reel up so you only touch the top 4" or so of the oats.
Use to swath oats and forward motion was about all that was needed to get oats on the canvass.
Hume reel gives more places to pinch and grab oats causing wrapping.
Pigeon grass would sometimes build up on the rollers and cause trouble, never found a cure for that.
 
In good tall oats like that, I would raise the reel some. Never had good luck going as high as the other fella, but want the middle pipe above the
heads for sure.

Best to have some feelers out on each snoot. A curved rod that divides the crop before the reel ever touches it. Look at pictures of swathers in
google, and you will see. The rods direct the heads of the oats inward just a tad, so the oats is inside the reel. With the short low shoots you
are getting oats coming in on the edge, outside of the reel.

Your swather looks set for short wheat.

Tall oats takes a little extra.

Not sure on the wrapping on the canvas, like the other fella said foxtail when wet and juicy will do that, just how it is.

Paul
 
This isn't a full hume reel. The fingers only move a couple degrees. With as nice as these oats are standing, I should go find a bat reel, though.

I tried running the reel higher, but didn't have much luck. The oats would sit on the transition between the sickle and the drapers. Then they'd surge to the middle in a huge pile. Going uphill, I could raise the reel maybe 4 inches. Going level, maybe an inch. Going downhill, had to be all the way down.

The taller crop dividers just might be the answer for the reel wrapping. The oats would get into the open space between the reel arm and the divider. Once there got to be enough, it's wrap. I'll try to make a few today.
 
Sometimes leaving 2-3 inches more stubble helps. I know, person wants the straw....

I had the opposite problem, 10 acres of oats, 5 and 5 of two types. The one fell down bad, had to scrape it off the ground. Was lucky, the 4.25
inch of rain a while back knocked it down, but was dry now, it windrowed very nicely for me.

The other type was tasseled some, actually where it was down it was plastered down, but most was standup ing tall, had to fiddle with the reel
height too. I think speeding up the reel would help, don't think that's an easy button setting on mine, but then a person shatters more heads....

Paul
 
We picked up the first field today. The straw was a touch tough. We thought rain was coming, so we did them anyway. Now I see rain is out of the forecast. I'll probably wait a couple days before I have the other three fields picked up. The guy running the combine liked how it turned out so much that he wants me to cut his tomorrow. Obviously, they're a week further along than the ones I cut. I think I'll try to cut them at 9 am tomorrow.

mvphoto25073.jpg
 

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