On those macdons when canola is tall and bushy, tilt your header all the way forward, makes the hole taller at the back of the header allowing for the canola to move easier through the center hole.
We have run rotoshears for 15 years. We have swathed 50 bushel plus, Invigor 345, 30 foot canola swaths with older HB headers at 7mph, without stationary knives and never plugged our shears. I would not swath Canola without them. Looks like your cutter wheel on your shear is not close enough to the steel plate and canola is wrapping between the plate and the rotary wheel. We run our as close as we can get it without the knives hitting anything,there is maybe a 3/8 inch gap. Also, when the gps works, we swath at 290 degrees NW as our strongest winds will come from that direction or the east and we never go without a roller. Lessons learned from past years of canola swaths blowing and combining entire fields 14 feet at a time. Great videos, Keep them up.
The end cutter is a must for canola. I had to combine a field for a neighbor that didn't have one it was a horrible mess of piles I was talking to myself before the field was done. The old 7720 with the slow speed drive kept shearing pins.
Had a honeybee And roto shears kept plugging..... adjusted a relief valve and that turned the rotoshears into chainsaws!! Should of consulted the manual alot sooner, wouldn't of had so many beaver huts..... combine drivers don't appreciate poor swather operators!!
There's a saying in NZ farming, "a good problem." That's what we have here. I love swathing, but the thought of an unforcasted cross wind against the rows can keep you awake at night, especially when you hear the wind rattling the windows. Awesome work 👍
Swathing Canola can be a frustrating experience to say the least. It does speed up the harvest but the risk of wind damage is also high. I have lost more crop to wind than any other peril over the years. Soldier on!!
Love watching the fall harvest Mike. Thanks for taking all of us along with you every day! Makes me want to try it someday. Or at least come run a machine for ya! I, too love the smell of dirt and also like to keep my cab clean! No shoes! Lol. 😂 Keep up the good work! 👍🏻🤙🏻
I drive a W150 w/35ft MacDon header. When I swath I make sure my reel is centered over the cutting bar. Now if the JD and Mac header are close to the same in how they are built, I would have to say your reel is too far back. On the right where your numbers show reel extension, you are at 8. On mine I'm about 6 for center. I think maybe that's why you might be having trouble swathing. Also don't be afraid to put reel down into canola to help it on the canvas. If you have canola that is facing away from you while you are swathing move your reel out, this will help lift the plant before cutting(4-5). FYI: I've cut around 5000 acres in the last 6 years.
I would agree with having the reel out also. I run mine 2/3 to 3/4 of the way out. Also reel in the crop and speed it up about 1.5 to 2 mph faster then ground speed. Tilt header all the way ahead it makes the hole taller and also makes the canvases less flat and grabbs crop better. I could go on and on.. also swath about 1000 ac a year myself. I never swath in the heat of the day either... only at night with dew or in the rain.
Hi Mike, not sure if’s in the comments, but cut your canola on an angle into prevailing wind. Here we go NW to SE. It picks up the sprayer tracks and you won’t push one way and cut easier the other.
With your issues with the sprayer tracks I now have a better understanding why some farmers in my area used airplanes to spray the canola. Possibly in the future Brother Brian and his plane may make a cameo appearance at the north farm
You can only fly so far from your home runway as a flying farmer. 20 miles I think. If Brian is a certified commercial operator he can fly in a 50 mile radius from his home base. I could be wrong on the distances but it’s something like that.
@@Stasiek_Zabojca I know, he would be better off to hire Clayton Air Services or Provincial Air although I’m not sure if Provincial flies that far north.
Mike,you don’t need the sheer’s, just a very long rod at the ends and dull knife section in the corners. Worked for me all the time, I grew canola for many years and learned how to deal with it. Never ever cut canola low, because it shells it will grow under the swath and then watch out , if you get a rainy period and can’t harvest right away you will be in Big trouble.
Honestly, I know exactly what you are going through. I had a 36 honeybee head and struggled. One direction it went great, the other direction, not so much. It obviously was leaning and had to go the same direction due to The prevailing winds as you indicated in your video
Thumbnails beautiful, I think it's amazing whoever decided to haul a swathe sideways. Y'all ever seen the one that balances on the front wheels along a just so wide enough trailer to fit the footprint of the fronts? Its absolutely amazing, theres a version of it in that farming simulator game
Before watching this channel, I had never heard much about canola and wondered about the market for it. A little investigation revealed its qualities, and now I look for stuff (mayonnaise, etc.) made with canola.
I can appreciate Ashtyn's dad's equipment is most likely busy in his fields but at some point it would be interesting to see Ashtyn in her favourite colour doing a side by side comparison
In my experience pod shatter canola swaths best with some speed. Drive around 4.5-5mph. Don’t be afraid to set your reels a little more aggressive and use the real speed to keep the canola moving on your canvas’. The faster you go the more room it has to go through the hole on your table!
@@kentonleriger8288 just be thankful mike did not cut your canola you may not have a combine left at the end. In his defence he is new to swathing and it shows a lot. Ahah
Next time it's swathing time come west and visit us by Kandahar. I'll get you sorted on those MacDon 1170's. Get that reel forward for starters. Put lot's of hours on them testing them before they were released.
Just a few comments. We've never had great luck swathing straight cut varieties, they dont seem to cure well in the swath. It will be ready to combine, the canola will be dry, but we will be chucking alot of pods that aren't cured properly out the back unthreshed. If you do swath it takes a week longer to cure than regular canola does, unless its dead ripe when swathed, which yours may be, I cant tell from the video. And also l345 was a big fat dud on our farm this year. I've never had to use rotor shears with our Macdon swather, or at least since I grew pioneer canola last, take them off and throw them in the bush.
Thanks for the comments Ken! Much appreciated.. Why was your 345 a dud? Didn't yield? Mine is a 65bu stand with 40bu grain.. Aka: " Trudeau Canola" - all stand and nothing in the head 😆😆 I also let some canola stand for the straight cutting comparsions and of that I sprayed some and didn't spray some. So it will be very interesting to see all the differences. I want to be done cutting a couple weeks here and the stuff I didn't spray I can still see some green in it... I think mistakes were made there 😆🤦🏻♂️
@@mikemitchell2554 The veracous seed treatment really set it back by at least 10-14 days. The DeKalb I had in the same field as a trial was easily 10 bushels better. But the other invigours l357 and 56 have been good. I was never a good swather operator, always leaving beaver huts. So now we straight cut most everything. But not being able to get it through the hole is usually a good problem. But I should add I'm 70 miles north of you, so your results may differ.
@@davidlogel2350 we had field trials all those varieties in it pioneer was almost 20 busals less then the 340 invigor it was embarrassing for the pioneer lol the invigor s all treated with vercoras were top of the trial all the competition was in the bottom of the pack.
amazing how much people struggle when they try and farm with john deere lmao.. must be painful knowing there is cheaper and better equipment available but to proud to try it
I am dating "myself" here but I had one sickle blade break on a sickle bar using a pull type swather. (I had caught a small tree branch moving to a new field.) It was before cell phones or FM radios were being used. My uncle checked on me and he said that he would replace the broken piece held by a couple of rivets. I was getting "good" and the swaths were nice and straight. I was so pleased. I finished most of the swathing and I returned to university. At Christmas time I asked my uncle how he enjoyed those straight swaths. He replied with a chuckle, "It was good except for those odd manure balls that you left." . . . you see, the end plugged once in awhile and I had to clear the swather. 😊
I agree if you have a good crop 40 ft sounds a lot to try to get out of the swather, even if you went down to a 35 ft it might help enough ....wonder if you were to cut higher if it would help
I disagree wholeheartedly every year we swathed the straight cut was Always 10 times out of 10 ready to harvest before the swaths, bigger seeds and more yield every….single….time, we pray and welcome the frost. And no not small acres, Regardless every farm is different Keep cranking out the good videos 👍
@@mikemitchell2554 yah I hear ya that looks like a great crop nonetheless, I always used to hear the comments from the trucks when they come to the farm to help haul away “did you straight cut this?” They would ask I would always ask “ how do you know?” They would say “your seeds are fatter than most canola we haul” I guess in theory when our family was the first in our area to straight cut back in the late 90s the theory was to let the crop ripen and mature under its own will, get a good frost and smoke it dead, then go grab it We don’t dessicate an acre either we all believe if your gonna dessicate it you may as well swath it. Variety is key no doubt. In 2012 we had a giant wind like all of Alberta did and it blew a giant crop down to 12 bu/ac so we did get burned that year, the flip side to that was everyone was fishing their swaths outta the tree line and also got 20bu/ac so they one upped us that year 😂 in 2013 I went and bought the brand new w150 Deere / macdon swather(s)and fought every single acre like this video Sold the swather after that and never looked back. Biggest down fall is that we aren’t breaking any speed records during combining taking it straight or not sprayed 3-3.5mph with 40’ macdon combine header sometimes 4mph if she’s hot n windy. This year had 340pc yielded awesome but tough chewing no doubt. Great crops up north btw that new X9 is gonna burn the diesel in them beaver huts but she’ll be worth it 👍👍🏦 love my t-shirt also work hard stay humble 🙏🎉💪🙌
Yeah your common denominator problem is you have to big of a header, the throat isn’t big enough to handle 40ft swaths, to much material coming into the throat, 30ft headers seems to be about the best size to run on swathers and not run into problems
Bean watching you and yours for a while now , was wondering why don’t park up facing east to reduce condensation… many farmers do mike. Even some of us "over the big pond" do it with a lot of farmers do …
Great video Mike could you bring your other x9 up there to work get through quicker ?and some of the jd with the honey bee headers that way you can cover all your bases
Mike we plant, fertilize and spray the rice and soy beans by what we call crop dusters planes in SE Tex and LA. so is there a reason why you can't spray your fields?
hi mike you look really tired and seem a little tired of it all, shouldn't you have some helpers to help you??? apart from that, the canola looks really good, hope you get it dry and ready in time. now take good care of yourself, Asthyn and Chapel need you 😊😊
Hello Mike. I was wondering, you probably have European viewers and would it be much trouble to insert hectares and tonnes in videos so that they can understand what's going on, if not we would be very grateful 😊
Was that the sound of a seat belt at 20m? You must be the only person in the world who voluntarily wears a seat belt in a tractor, with the exception of the sticky moments when you think you may tip over
Because I want to finish harvest before Christmas 😆 seeding was late this spring and we are running out of time to get it dried down. Swathing is the fastest way to maturity
Never played with Canola or Swathers, but can you not get a swather head for a combine? selling you a entire self propelled machine that does bugger all every year and basically does 1/4 of the job that a combine already does seems strange to me. But Manufacturers don't get rich by making sense I guess :D
Faster dry down when its swathed as when it is cut, it is done growing. If they were going to spray it would take 3 weeks. There could be snow in 3 weeks. Also, when it freezes and it is standing, the green is locked in the seed, better off in a swath. Been there done that, seen it all. Good points and bad points to both swathing and straight cutting.