Finally a solution,,,, Alfalfa seed harvest

I thought I would share this,, I had asked this question here a few years ago but no one really had ran into it,,, that was on a straw walker machine,, the short stems from the alfalfa would turn and drop into the walker grids at the last step in the walker,, this would plug tight once this happened,,, no fun to clean out,, it also would run a large amount of the down the front of the walker grids and plug the grain pan with straw,,, all Bad news,, and a real Pain! Last year I added a 600 CASE machine into my "Herd" and thought it would be a great machine for alfalfa seed,,, it is a straw rack machine,, well it plugged the last two steps of the rack TIGHT,, as well as the return pan under the rack all the way to the concave, I also had plugged it Tight on the grain pan,,, BUT it showed me what was going on in both types of machines,, and I had a thought,,, make me grid covers easy to install and remove on the last step of the rack (will work as well on a walker),,, had some scrap paneling form a remodel job,,, right width,, cut them to length, screwed a wood stake tot he panel, then screw through holes already in the rack grid,,, Then I felt is would be too slick to walk it up the covers,, so a few beads from my hot glue guns and ,,,Vola! ran her for a couple hours today rack seems to be staying 99% clean now Zero build up,,, not sure if anyone will ever face this but you never know,,,
cnt

Now, that's farmer engineering at its best! Good Job!

Ben

we need a (like) icon ,. LOL,,.necessity is the mother of invention ,,. GOOD JOB, TOM

thats an good settup hows the Alfalfa running?

Case Nutty 1660 why was it only plugging the last section and not the entire walker??? Is the pan/walker different on the bottom of the walker in the back section???

All five "steps" on the walkers or rack are all the same, but it seems with these short stems, that by the time they have got to the last "step" the stems will turn and fall straight down into the grid in the walker. when it starts it this just keeps building up and the plugging starts building forward. I do not ever have this problem if I have 12" or taller stems,, I have fought this for many years,, but only in this crop, small grain straw does not do this,,, just these tiny short alfalfa stems, I had first thought the thresher was running at the correct speed letting it start plugging,, a check with a hand tach showed that was not it,,, then I thought the check flap position was the problem,, these machines have three different setting for check flaps,,, this changed nothing, even removing the check flap and allowing it to throw the material farther to the rear of the walker,, zero change. But when I seen it started at the rear and built up forward that was the answer I needed,, My plan was do the rear section first,, and if the next section started plugging I going to cover it as well,,, but thankfully the rear section covered is the key,,, CASE did make factory grid covers in two styles, one has round holes smaller than the walkers square grids,, the other a solid cover,,, but only for the 3rd and 5th steps,,, this told me CASE engineers had run into this problem as well,,, of course no covers are left anymore that I can find, so I tried this to see if it helped, easy to install and remove,, zero mods to the walker,,, for me it was a eureka moment,, Sorry for the long answer,,, a bit hard to type out in a few words, I hope this helps explain what was going on,,, like I said this is the only crop I ever have issues like this, And conditions have to be right,,, Dry short stems,,, I had found years ago if it did this I could start running with early morning dew or even frost the stems would walk right out,, all my life running combines I Never would have thought running when it was damp would help,,, but help at times it did,, anyway,, again sorry for the ramble,,, this works So far better than anything I have tried before,, improvement was immediate,, the final test was when I ran what I had dug out of the machine by breaking up the straw to 1"-3" long stems,, and They went right through,,, before I would have plugged it right then,, I sure hope I answered your question
cnt
cnt

Case nutty: Do you think that the lower air flow towards the rear of the walkers is what causes the short alfalfa to fall through the last section???

I really do not see how you get any air flow through walkers or a rack as both have covers on the bottom,,, only air flow from fan comes through the chaffer and cleaning sieves,, I have very little trouble with any build up in the sieves in any crop,,,
cnt

Case nutty you could have just used window screen.