2015 HARVEST WITH STRIPPER HEADER

[Update 8/2/15]-- Normally we don't have weed issues in our crops, but this year is an exception.  Yesterday, we were part of a 16 combine crew that harvested a friends crop.  The friend wanted to experience a stripper headed crop so we were assigned to cut the Louise spring wheat.  The heat this year beat up his spring grains and left room for russian thistles to grow.  The heat pinched the tips and the grain bin looked cobby, and where we had a lot of russian thistles, we added green material to the bin.  Not a sample to be proud of.  My son was asked whether the stripper head was better or worse than a standard head in cutting a crop infestation with thistle.  His answer: -- we process much less of the thistle, leaving more in the field; however, what we do process, is the tender top branches, and a high percentage of this material ends up in the grain tank.  Eight rows of fingers traveling between 400 and 800rpm, provide a lot of hits.  The material tends to be too small to sieve off, and too heavy to blow out.  This also is the tendency with immature grain.  Only a fraction of immature heads are stripped; however, most of what is stripped ends up in the grain bin.  Our pea and garbs have turned up weedy because of the June 12th frost and high temperatures.  We will use chemistry to dry down the crop and weeds prior to harvesting with either the stripper head, or conventional head.  With the material dry, none will end up in the bin.  An advantage with using a stripper head in lightly infested fields is that most of the green plant will be left intact.  The weeds will take in an application of herbicide soon following harvest.
       July 18th was our startup of the 2015 harvest of winter wheat.  I don't remember ever harvesting this early.  Several operations around us started the 10th.  Our normal startup is around August 1st.

 The hot, dry weather in June and July has left the straw more brittle than usual.  The stripper head is lodging a significant amount of stems as shown in the pic above.   The pulling action of the rotor as it strips the head is bending and breaking some of the straw at a weak node near the base of the plant..  We haven't seen this before.  Without the heads interacting and helping to hold the stand together, I think a good wind will knock down a lot of what is left standing.  This stand will certainly collapse with snow, --if we get any this coming winter.