[djust]

I am looking at buying a JD645fd, and am wondering what type of sickles to equip it with from the factory. It will cut mostly Soybeans and about 100 acres of oats a year. Most guys around here run the long/short sickles to get a better cut in their no till beans, I have always ran long/long. I would switch to the long/shorts if I knew they would do o.k. in oats, anyone have any experience?

 

[GoGetter]

Order the long-long, unless you are in beans into no-till corn stalks.
In small grains you want the long.

You will have a chance to switch next time you replace.

 

[Alf]

I ran long short sections on 600 acres of wheat and about 1,000 acres of soybeans and I couldn't wait to get rid of them. They cut wheat fine if you stay around 3-3.5 mph, but I didn't like them in beans. It seemed like they left a lot of beans standing and they broke quit easily. The header was purchased with them on already and I never did use them in corn stalks. We rebuilt the knife with long longs and it was like a new header, cut like a dream. In my mind it's simple, the more cutting surface the more cutting.