I have seen only one farmer in my area use the windrow and later combine using a dummy head. Not a real popular item. can someone explain the reason for letting a crop sit in a windrow and later processing it through the combine. I have a crop that tends to have a few green weeds and I am thinking it might benefit me to windrow the crop first and then combine. I have a line on a dummy head that I can purchase. Any input would be appreciated.
- Thread starter MikeO-WI
- Start date
Brendon-KS
Well-known Member
- Location
- Goessel, KS
Windrowers and pick-up headers are commonly used in the northern region such as Alberta and Saskatchewan. In this climate the grain is slow to ripen and getting it cut and in the windrower speeds the process and protects it from damage if they get an early snow. Canola is a popular crop in Canada and most of it is windrowed while still green to prevent shattering. Before herbicides were popular grain was sometimes windrowed if the weeds got too bad - my FIL here in Kansas has talked of doing that years ago.
flying belgian
Well-known Member
I am in So. central Mn. and I have to windrow (swath) my small grain. Our weather is so humid if you wait for the heads to dry down enough to straight combine, the stalks will be so rotten that the grain will go down. Once the grain goes down then the weeds start growing through it. That in turn holds moisture in the heads and now it will never dry enough to combine.
Jim in Sask
Member
Swathing a crop helps speed up things if you have green weeds or areas in the crop such as sloughs where the crop is a little on the green side compared to the rest of it. The downside is if you get a lot of rain on a swathed crop such as wheat or barley it'll sprout quicker than a standing crop.
A lot of swathing up here has been replaced with spraying the crop with Reglone or Roundup to dry it down and even up maturity. Downside of that is tramping some of the crop and personally I don't care for the idea of spraying a crop that close to harvest, although it's supposed to be safe if done at the right stage. :roll:
Last year was the first time I did much straight combining, mostly due to very wet fields that made swathing with a pull-type swather a misery.
A lot of swathing up here has been replaced with spraying the crop with Reglone or Roundup to dry it down and even up maturity. Downside of that is tramping some of the crop and personally I don't care for the idea of spraying a crop that close to harvest, although it's supposed to be safe if done at the right stage. :roll:
Last year was the first time I did much straight combining, mostly due to very wet fields that made swathing with a pull-type swather a misery.
wilson ind
Well-known Member
what is a dummy head?? I have seen some places use a belt conveyor with spring teeth to pick up windrows. I think the operators were of average intelligence or greater.
Brendon-KS
Well-known Member
- Location
- Goessel, KS
I've heard the term "dummy head" used around here too. It is a standard grain platform (usually an old narrow one) where the reel and possibly even the sickle is removed that a pickup attachment is then fitted onto. This is in contrast to the actual pickup headers that are built especially for the purpose.
farmerwithmutt
Well-known Member
For a swather some of the old case windrowers simply took there condition rolls out a neighbor simply cut the rolls out of an old haybine
here is a thought ,,, if you have a stone trap like my 300 massey ,, on a damp day so you don't knok out grain . you could cut the crop a ft hi in those weedy areas ,..., with the the rock trap open, and concave wide , thresher engaged,,. generally cutting off and running crop out .. giveit and weeds 2 or 4 days drying time ,,then come back and run cut low and run everything thru threshing clean,..
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Here is a couple pictures for you of my equipment .MF combine with dummy head and Melroe pick-up . And JD swather with draper head. I use this for small grain.
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