In it's second year the Shelbourne header performed very well. Our harvest consisted of winter wheat with excellent yields, spring barley with respectable yields, and spring mustard with below preferred yields. This year we harvested the mustard with both the standard header and the stripper header. Header loss was not distinguishable between the two types by observing seed on the ground. The mustard set seed pods low on the plant this year. The stripper head picked all of the seed pods, where the standard rigid sickle head missed a lot of pods near the ground. We did have a field with high moisture, and the low areas grew mustard five feet tall. This field was cut with the standard head. This field had a high population of china lettuce, and we felt the stripper head would have received a lot of wear (damage) engaging those tough stalks. I think that the stripper head would have had higher loss in those areas with the tall mustard because the hood would have had to be wide open. Although, with the shatter resistants of the mustard seed pod, it's possible, ?????, that the hood could have been lowered to an acceptable harvest position, ---the mustard would have been pushed and compressed as the stripper head engaged the crop. We have a neighbor that had a very dense stand of mustard. It started out tall but lodged. I think the stripper head would have done well in that condition.
An observation we have made: ---> immature wheat and barley heads do not strip well.
We all have experienced situations where secondary growth and head development cause problems because that under story of green heads seem never too ripen. We notice that the stripper head leaves most of those heads intact, thus reducing the contamination in the bulk tank. That gives you the opportunity for a second harvest, if the timing and quantity warrants it, or food for animals.
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