I had a thread on the general crop production forum, but it's more appropriate here. A year ago I asked for folks' experience trying to flex cut dry beans, specifically with the FD70. This year we finally did some, and it seems to have worked quite well. We've done about about 50 acres or so.
I was pretty confident the header would do a good job, but our field man has been skeptical and hasn't seen a straight cut job this season that was really much good. I'm not sure we convinced him, but he did say our header did better than any of the others he had seen this season. And indeed the header did about what I figured it would. Cuts about as good as the swather and the losses from cutting open pods aren't that much greater. There is some loss, obviously, but not that much. I'm going to go out in a while when harvest is over and count beans on the ground in the different areas, swathing vs straight cut. Then consider the dockage numbers and I'll hopefully have some real data. My brother finds that you can go quite fast, up to 5 mph, and at higher speeds, the header losses might even be slightly less. Maybe the draper pushes underneath the shattering pods and saves the beans better. One area of loss is from the dividers on the header. As a contrast, CNH's new 3162 header has really thin dividers since the knife drive is in the center.
Discovered one downside tonight (other than the dividers shattering beans). Once the plants start getting a bit damp from the dew you have to stop. They just don't cut that well, and header losses start increasing. So in late September that does limit the number of hours one can harvest, whereas the swathes typically let us go at least an hour after sunset before they get tough and grumbly. Of course sometimes with trucking delays you can't get long hours in anyway.
In the meantime, we feel this trial run was fairly successful. While unloading at the plant, there was way less dirt (less chance for tagging also) in our straight cut loads than the swathed ones. The workers unloading the trucks commented on two occasions about that fact. Dockage numbers will tell the tale though.
I was pretty confident the header would do a good job, but our field man has been skeptical and hasn't seen a straight cut job this season that was really much good. I'm not sure we convinced him, but he did say our header did better than any of the others he had seen this season. And indeed the header did about what I figured it would. Cuts about as good as the swather and the losses from cutting open pods aren't that much greater. There is some loss, obviously, but not that much. I'm going to go out in a while when harvest is over and count beans on the ground in the different areas, swathing vs straight cut. Then consider the dockage numbers and I'll hopefully have some real data. My brother finds that you can go quite fast, up to 5 mph, and at higher speeds, the header losses might even be slightly less. Maybe the draper pushes underneath the shattering pods and saves the beans better. One area of loss is from the dividers on the header. As a contrast, CNH's new 3162 header has really thin dividers since the knife drive is in the center.
Discovered one downside tonight (other than the dividers shattering beans). Once the plants start getting a bit damp from the dew you have to stop. They just don't cut that well, and header losses start increasing. So in late September that does limit the number of hours one can harvest, whereas the swathes typically let us go at least an hour after sunset before they get tough and grumbly. Of course sometimes with trucking delays you can't get long hours in anyway.
In the meantime, we feel this trial run was fairly successful. While unloading at the plant, there was way less dirt (less chance for tagging also) in our straight cut loads than the swathed ones. The workers unloading the trucks commented on two occasions about that fact. Dockage numbers will tell the tale though.