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Piling Flax Straw

rusty6

rusty6

Well-known Member
Location
East central Sask.
Got some more old video transferred from Vhs to digital. From 1999 of my dad piling flax straw using his old favourite tractor, the Cockshutt 50.
It does not seem like 20 years ago but I guess time flies. I've still got the 50 but Dad left us in 2003 at age 84.
Cockshutt 50
 
Another good one I was going to ask if you would pick the straw later with a hay rack but I watched until the end and found out what happened to the straw
 
Could hear the transition whine , much louder than the engine. My guess is he was pushing in 4th gear. Always seem to me the low range whine was very different from the High range tranny sounds. My dad really enjoyed running his Cockshutt tractor too. Imagine how people would freak out if you burned up a straw stack these days.
 
Every 50 I was ever around had that transmission whine. We stacked a lot of hay using a 50. Dad?s was a gas burner. Neighbor had a diesel one that he mounted a truck front axle and hydrostatic steering on. 4th and high reverse made it a nice loader tractor.
I have hauled some flax and have heard that they used to use the straw for something but never heard for what? I don?t think I have ever seen it piled before.
 
Back in the 60s every kid in high school made a little extra money by helping stack flax straw bales. ADM, Archer Daniels Midland had a yard outside town where huge stacks of flax straw were stored. Later in the winter or next spring they would bring in the towing machines to take the "tow" from the straw...believe it was used for clothing mfg. Some had self-propelled balers and semis to bale and haul the straw. Gradually the price of flax dropped and ended the flax straw enterprise.
 
(quoted from post at 03:53:32 12/18/19) Could hear the transition whine , much louder than the engine. My guess is he was pushing in 4th gear. Always seem to me the low range whine was very different from the High range tranny sounds. My dad really enjoyed running his Cockshutt tractor too. Imagine how people would freak out if you burned up a straw stack these days.
Click to expand...
Yes, fourth gear pushing there. And I don't think a pile of burning straw would cause much concern here even now. It is still the preferred method of disposing of the almost indestructible straw. There are no places nearby that would buy the straw and the cost of transporting would not make sense.
 
Yes, its right in the manual. Always have the transmission shifter in high range when using the belt pulley. This one has a real whine even running the belt pulley. You can hear it in most of the belt work videos I've posted in the past.
Some video here of my last flax harvest. The worst ever and it finally convinced me that it was just too much of a battle trying to push this stuff through a combine and wrecking it in the process.. Plus laying on those straw walkers for hours cutting wrapped straw off the beater was pretty painful.
Last flax harvest
 
same here. $5 a bale, I lose money on wheat if I don't bale the straw. my cow eat straw even when they have plenty of good hay so I can stretch my hay out if needed.
 
My Dad raised flax in the 1950s. Combined it with a JD 12A and I don't remember the straw ever wrapping anywhere on that machine. But the 12A had just a "shaker", not a straw walker so that probably prevented straw wrapping.

I think I'm correct on the 12A internals that it was quite different from a walker machine. Correct this if I'm wrong.

Well one week to Christmas. Is it too early to wish YT'ers Merry Christmas? Hope not.
 
(quoted from post at 09:00:55 12/18/19) Running it through a straw chopper on the combine wouldn't make sense? Always looking for more organic matter here.
Click to expand...
I think some guys with newer combines and choppers have tried putting it through a chopper but not sure how well it worked. If you have never dealt with flax straw you have no idea how strong it is. Its what ropes are made of. The more you work it the tougher it gets. The stuff I had to saw off the beaters of the combine was just like rope or sisal twine. Multiple wraps wound tight. Eventually it got tight enough to create friction, then smoke, then fire.
 
(quoted from post at 09:49:20 12/18/19) My Dad raised flax in the 1950s. Combined it with a JD 12A and I don't remember the straw ever wrapping anywhere on that machine. But the 12A had just a "shaker", not a straw walker so that probably prevented straw wrapping.

I think I'm correct on the 12A internals that it was quite different from a walker machine. Correct this if I'm wrong.

Well one week to Christmas. Is it too early to wish YT'ers Merry Christmas? Hope not.
Click to expand...
Thanks Ron. I can't comment on the 12A but I know any rotating shaft was subject to wrapping. There was even one big smooth shaft that ran across the JD pull type just in front of and above the cylinder. One time it wrapped on that shaft so tight that it started rubbing on the sheet metal of the combine and burning. It burnt the paint off the outside of the combine before I saw smoke coming down the feeder chain. It was a high stress crop to harvest and eventually I gave up on it before it burned down the combine or killed me.
 
Interesting. I combined some rye once, and said never again! Nothing like what you're talking about, but I was trying to get grain and bright straw. I ended up carrying a small chainsaw with a dull chain to hack the straw off the ends of the reel when it started wrapping. As soon as it started wrapping, you couldn't stop fast enough.

The guys who used to make nice rye straw here mowed it while it was still some green. The guys who were looking for grain would let it get really dead ripe before combining, but the straw wouldn't be bright any more.
 
Thanks for the video. Nice looking tractor and IH pickup truck too. Flax is not grown in this part of the country ( upstate NY).What was your main use for the flaxseed.? Cow feed, cash crop? I enjoy posts like this to hear how things are done in other areas with methods and crops different from what I am familiar with. Looks like the snow plow worked out ok to push up the straw , too bad you didn?t have a buck rake.
 
(quoted from post at 16:21:35 12/18/19) Thanks for the video. Nice looking tractor and IH pickup truck too. Flax is not grown in this part of the country ( upstate NY).What was your main use for the flaxseed.? Cow feed, cash crop? I enjoy posts like this to hear how things are done in other areas with methods and crops different from what I am familiar with. Looks like the snow plow worked out ok to push up the straw , too bad you didn?t have a buck rake.
Click to expand...
Flax was a real cash crop some years. It was as high as $16 per bushel for one short period a few years ago but I missed out on that. In fact I did finally buy a flax straw rake at a farm auction but only used it one season and then quit growing flax after the disastrous 2016 harvest.
 
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