|
SDman
08-26-2000 12:31:16
|
|
Re: Sunflowers in reply to Chuck, 08-19-2000 16:36:47
|
|
| |
Chuck, we've raised sunflowers here in central SD for 20 years & they only way I have seen them harvested are with a combine. As far as the headers used, I've seen about 5 different types. 1)The JD All-Crop header is most common unless you deal with different row widths. 2)Westward Sunmasters, which are a newer version of the All-Crop head. Both of these styles look like a corn head, but instead of stripper plates they use a rotary knife setup that cuts the heads off the stalks. 3)Sunflower pans, which are little 9" or 12" snouts mounted on a grain head that usually has the reel removed & some sort of a drum used in its place to feed the flowers into the auger. 4)Lee-Way or 3-Way heads, which are wide snouts fitted to a grain head that uses augers to feed the crop to the header instead of gathering chains/belts. 5)Corn-sols, which are knives fitted to a regular corn head to chop heads off of the stalks. They all have advantages & disadvantages. One thing about a sunflower combine, most of the threshing parts do not have to be in very good condition(cylinder bars & concaves) as flowers thrash VERY easy. Usually you try to get them through the combine as quick as possible as when the stalks break up(they are very brittle), they tend to make the cleaning system(fan & seives) work harder to get a clean sample. As far as fires, flowers do have a bad reputation, but its something that you need to be aware of when dealing with ANY oilseed(soybeans, 'flowers, canola). Any combine CAN & WILL burn if it is not cleaned off periodically when harvesting oilseeds. Worst thing about working on a sunflower combine is that it feels like you are working inside a chimney. Good luck, & if you need more info, just let me know.
|
|
|
