Combine world record

[Coolnorth]

Hi all,

Just thought you might be interested in this article. I would have likes to see it in person, but was not able to get there in time to view the 200 combines working on a world record harvest!

Graham


CBC News - Manitoba - Massive harvest for record books and charity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnnm5zWC02g

[Johndeere3720]

Thats a lot of combines! I wonder how long the row of combines was?

[farmboy12]

Thanks!

BTW, there's a new Gator XUV at 9:24.


Kyle

[Big Wave D]

Coolnorth,

Thanks for the post.

I read the article and saw they were harvesting wheat, but here's my question.

When they harvest wheat, rye, oats, etc. around me, the combines have wide heads with reels on them. These machines seem to have much smaller heads and the wheat was 'wind rowed', for lack of a better term.

Can you explain to me the difference in farming methods from the Midwest to the great plains of our northern brothers please?

[Coolnorth]

Hi Big Wave D,

In a word, no. I suspect, however, that they found any combine that they could to simply have the numbers for the world record. The Winkler area is probably the most eastern area of the bread-basket, as you hit Saskatchewan and Alberta, you'd see the wider heads in use.

My personal experience with wheat so far is to spread it with grass seed in a walk-behind distributor to help repair my lawn (the wheat growing quickly, shading the grass seed) and planted 40 lb of wheat to get some ground coverage at the edge of my small vegetable field to reduce erosion.

I heard the ads for the event a week ago and was intrigued enough to look it up after the fact.

Graham

[Cam-Saskatoon Canada]

BWD
Not being a farmer but living in farm country, maybe I can give an answer to your question. A lot of times, the crops don't ripen all at the same time so "straight combining" (with a reel and cutter on the combine) is difficult with such variable moisture. Keep in mind, we have a lot shorter growing season up here than they do in Texas. So a lot of farmers "swath" their crops--that is, cut it with a machine called a swather and lay it in windrows. With a little sun and a bit of wind and a bit of time, the grain in the windrows dries to the same level. The combine is then fitted with a "pickup" which is exactly what it sounds like--it picks up the swath and runs it through the combine. Usually the reel is removed from the combine for this operation. Hope this explains well enough.

[Big Wave D]

Cam-Saskatoon Canada,

Hey thanks!

That makes perfect sense now.

Appreciate the info.

I must say, it kind of looks funny with those huge combines and running those small pick-up heads. It seems more regal/noble when they strut their stuff and have those massive reels on them like in the lower 48.

[CharlieS]

So a lot of farmers "swath" their crops--.

Or as they say in North Dakota......a "swatter"

Small grain's are swathed, or windrowed when still a bit green to prevent shelling kernels of grain out of the heads, then after they lay in the field and dry picked up with whats known as a pickup attachement that is attached to a short header on the combine thus feeding the unthrashed grain into the combine. SunD is one of the most used pickup attachements on the market.

[Wacky]

Sure is ALOT of GREEN in the picture.

[Mountain Goat]

AWESOME! Thanks for the post!