[AT] Hey Ralph!

[Herb Metz]

Charlie,
The only direct combined exception I am aware of is/was alfalfa; during WWII 
many acres of alfalfa seed was grown/harvested in central KS.
If memory serves, the buyer was in Chillicothe, MO. and good yield was three 
bushel/acre and price was $15/bushel; good money in those days.  Normally, 
first cutting was let go to seed.  Crop was cut with sickle bar mower with a 
curler/roller/swather attached to the sicklebar which rolled the cut alfalfa 
far enough away from the uncut alfalfa that the tractor did not run over the 
fresh cut swath. This swather was a series of 1" wide metal strapirons, the 
outer most strap being 4' long (the last 2' was rolled up into a half 
circle).  Estimated 2"gaps between each strap.  Each strap iron back toward 
the tractor was an additional 3" long, the last strap being an estimated 8' 
long. One could make a square turn, but had to be fast or slow the tractor 
considerably.   This was years before power steering on farm tractors. This 
whole crop was vulnerable to moisture.
I drove neighbors H Farmall pulling a 12' Baldwin with 6' wide rotating 
pickups temporarily installed; we harvested close to 100 acres each of two 
years.
I have no idea as to todays alfalfa seed growing/harvesting situation.
Herb(GA)


-----Original Message----- 
From: charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 8:32 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

AHHH!   Now I understand.  I didn't realize you had already cut and swathed
it.
That is something you don't see here.  Everything we grow is direct
combined.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Ralph Goff
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2015 8:28 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Hey Ralph!

On 11/21/2015 7:03 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Flax must hold very well in the field.  Of course you don't have
> the humidity we have here but we don't have the winds and snow you have.
> It just seems to me like the snow would knock it flat on the ground.
> There's no doubt in my mind you know how to handle it.  I'm just curious
> about how farming happens in different places.
>
> Good luck with it.
>
> Charlie
This flax is already in the swath so no worries of it breaking down in
the snow. I actually left a few acres out
over last winter and it stood up pretty well except for some of the flax
seeds pods breaking off.
Now if I had left the crop standing this fall I might have stood a
better chance of harvesting it yet before
real winter. Now that it lies on the ground in the swath there is not
much hope. What little snow we had
was blown into the swaths and they lie on frozen mud now. The deer and
moose will feed on it this
winter no doubt.

Ralph in Sask.
>

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