Windrowed wheat?

tomstractorsandtoys · Jul 23, 2014

This year our wheat straw is very green but the grain is down to 13% moisture.I bought a 105 Deere combine with a windrow pick-up head(I am planing on adding a quick atach federhouse and using it for corn) and I already have a Deere 800 windrower that we have cut hay with before buying a discbine.Will it hurt the wheat to be rained on in the swath and how hard will it be to get dry if it does rain on it? It looks like a fairly good crop and we are in southern WI.There is rain forcast for Friday and I am not sure if windrowed today it wil be fit tomarrow.

Ron Anderson · Jul 23, 2014

If you get to much rain the wheat will sprout in the windrow.

Bob seND · Jul 23, 2014

It will take a couple of days in the swath to dry out if your straw is quite green. Light rain, add another day of hot windy weather. It won"t sprout for a few days in the swath after rain except in the areas where you"ve driven over the swath and shelled it out. If your straw were dry, you could combine it right after the swather at 13.5 moisture.

Allan in NE · Jul 23, 2014

I dunno,

I'd wait for 'er to dry down, but if your hell bent on swathing it, get the crimper off the windrower and get after it. :>)

Allan

Bill in IL · Jul 23, 2014

We used to swath our oats to get better straw from it. It also allowed any weeds to dry down. One year they got rained on and we had to rent an inverter to get them to dry down. Much easier on the grain than an old bar rake. I would think your grain would take 2-3 days just about like mowing hay to dry down.

Mike (WA) · Jul 23, 2014

Wait for better weather outlook, and it will dry down some more in the meantime. The grain certainly won't be hurt by standing awhile longer, and there's no advantage in exposing it to rain damage by swathing it now with rain on the horizon.

Leroy · Jul 23, 2014

Few year ago a neighbor BTO tried that and lost his entire wheat crop. Only winrow wheat I have ever seen. Cut it straight without trying to loose it on ground before you can harvest it.

Dick2 · Jul 23, 2014

That's the way we did it for 40+ years in ND. We used pull-type swathers, adjusted the speed of the swather and angle of platform to lay a "loose" swath on top of the stubble. If it rained there was lots of air space around the windrows so they could dry quickly.

I don't know if you have those types of adjustment on your swather, but it's kind of a trial-and-error thing to make a loose windrow. We cut the stubble medium height to give the windrow more support. Cut too high and the windrow might settle down into the stubble and be really difficult to pick up with the combine. Cut too short and the windrow won't dry very fast after a rain.

Robert Major · Jul 23, 2014

Hi Not sure on the weather patterns with you guys, Up here in Manitoba Canada. we play the lottery with rain and swathing or not and visit from the great white combine( hail storms) on ripe standing crops. Some times you win sometimes you loose at both games. i would say a couple of weeks or more down and rain round here, before it starts sprouting in the swath. all i know is some guys have a great crop then hail hits it standing and they aint so happy sitting in the coffee shop cause they never swathed it!

Regards Robert

JMS/.MN · Jul 23, 2014

Primary reason for swathing grain is to let the weeds and stems dry down cuz it"s too tough to get through the combine. Needs to dry several days...you don"t cut one day and combine the next- if you could, you wouldn"t need to swath it. May take a few days to dry after a rain, but it"s not going to sprout in the windrow unless it lays for a week or more.

Jim in Sask · Jul 23, 2014

If it's winter wheat it'll be a lot more susceptible to sprouting in the swath after a rain than hard red spring wheat is. Swathing will help dry down the straw and green weeds but up here it usually takes at least a week before it's combined. Your sample may be dry now but if there's any green wheat or weed seeds or other green material it can still heat in the bin if put away on a hot day.

ertl collector · Jul 24, 2014

Here's a a neat pic

fixerupper · Jul 25, 2014

How green are the stems? We used to direct cut many thousands of acres of wet green stemmed 130 bushel irrigated wheat in Idaho. It was very tough and took lots of horsepower, but it did work. To our advantage, the platforms were shined up before we went into it. If you could find a 15' or smaller platform you could possibly grind it through straight cutting but it might not feed well if the head is rusty. Jim

Windrowed wheat?

tomstractorsandtoys

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Ron Anderson

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Bob seND

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Allan in NE

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Bill in IL

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Mike (WA)

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Leroy

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Dick2

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Robert Major

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JMS/.MN

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Jim in Sask

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ertl collector

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fixerupper

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