cuttin wheet

[schmism]

they are cutting winter wheet in the Midwest these past week or 2....

ive noticed they seem to be cutting it high... leaving about a foot left standing on the ground which they then cut with hay equipment and bale....

is that normal? i cant say ive ever seen it done before....

 

[nmu98]

Normal here in michigan. it gets sold for halloween decoration, Archery arrow targets, and for cover when planting grass... Everything to help cover costs these days!

 

[KaiB]

What wheat? Between the late freeze, worms and record spring rains, we're out.

Land for sale.

 

[Egon]

In Alberta balling straw is quite common. It gets used for bedding.

What confuses me is the two cuttings. From what little I have seen the combine is set to leave a windrow of straw or dumps a large pile of straw every so often. The windrows get bailed. The dumps are collected and then stored for future use.

It may be that the combine cannot handle a full cut of the wheat and that is why it is left high.

 

[chadincolo]

In Alberta balling straw is quite common. It gets used for bedding.

What confuses me is the two cuttings. From what little I have seen the combine is set to leave a windrow of straw or dumps a large pile of straw every so often. The windrows get bailed. The dumps are collected and then stored for future use.

It may be that the combine cannot handle a full cut of the wheat and that is why it is left high.

The trick with combines is to load the sieves, but not overload them. They can cut faster leaving more stubble standing, then come back and cut with a swather to harvest the straw. Guys around here do similar with a stripper header (a spinning cylinder with "notched teeth" that pluck the heads off, pulling minimal extra material into the combine, allowing the combine to move quickly (time is money), and leaving unchewed straw standing to be cut and baled.

On another note, I've never seen a combine that leave "dumps" of straw, most are set to spread the straw out, making tillage easier.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Wheat is heading out and some starting to turn. Sorry we don't grow wheet .

Fairly common practice to cut high on the stocks so combine is handling grain and not straw. Yield in this area for winter wheat is in the range of 100-120 bushels/acre. Spring wheat yield is more like 60-80 bushel/acre. Will go back over the field with one kind of mower or another. Straw will either be burnt or bailed depending upon what the state is allowing for the yr.

We're also a big producer of grass seed. These fields are cut a lot closer to the ground and like other grain, either burnt or bailed. Grass straw is still usable for aniumal feed but certainly not top qlty. Lot of grass straw exported from area and belive a good portion of it goes to the Far East.

 

[schmism]

ive seen a couple of guys with 8-12" tall standing straw? (wheat thats been cut high with a combine) and running a grain drill with no other prep... a no till method i assume.....

what would he be planting? Seems to late for soybeans... (this was southern MO and AR...) (the last 2 weekends i traveld from STL To memphis TN.... so i passed the same feilds 4 times in the last week )

 

[Egon]

The " Straw Dumps " are probably a thing of the past.

What little I know or have seen is from an area where swathing is the norm. Ripe and dry on the stem will not happen often due to the short season. I can fully comprehend not loading up the combine with straw. Less straw will be much faster and have less wastage.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Schmism, they usually no-till soybeans after wheat is harvested. It is not too late for thebeans yet and they will usually be the last crop to be harvested, most likely those will be harvested in late October or early November.

 

[RonR]

You can disable and/or remove the straw spreaders (straw choppers are harder to remove/replace). This will leave a decent windrow of straw, which can be baled. Otherwise, the straw out the rear of the combine is spread to improve the ability to till it into the soil.

In KS, the straw is used for bedding, not as a food source, as far as I know. I don't know many people who bale much straw, certainly they'd have a mountain of bales if they baled it all, so seldom do I see guys swath it to get it all.

Now, green wheat can be swathed/baled before the stalk and grain mature, early in the spring, and that is fed to cattle.

If the wheat is standing straight and tall, all the heads will be at the top, making it easy to just top it and capture the grain. Here, that doesn't happen often. The stalks will bend over, or lay down due to wind/rain. When that happens, you run much slower and run a SLUG of straw through the combine.

ron