Shelbourne Stripper Header

[Click on the label "stripper head" at the bottom of post for more posts on the subject.] 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012, we took delivery of a new CVS 32' header.  There are no other units in our immediate area to draw information from about their use.  There are two 32', 2011 units at Worley, ID run by Seth Melhorn on relatively flat (or gentle slopping ground). Eric Thorn of Dayton, WA runs two 25' AgCo units on 40% slopes.  The Shelbourne website gives the basic combine setup information.  Ag Talk:  (go to links page) appears to have helpful information for trouble shooting.  This post will be updated as I find useful information relating to harvesting with the stripper header.

       

Lots of good info on the Shelbourne site, setup for a specific combine, Maintenance , settings , etc. http://www.shelbourne.com/harvesting/stripper-header Remember to change the gear box oil every year and use only Mobil 1 full synthetic 75 / 90. Run the header low enough so the stripping rotor can reach the lowest heads. Once you find the right header height, set the hood so the tip of the grain heads are about level with the top of the hood nose. This will bend the heads and tops of the stems forward far enough to present the "wall of straw" in front of the stripper rotor, so any seeds that fly forward are bounced back into the stripper rotor. Bending the crop forward like that also causes the crop to spring back into the rotor in a way that the heads will be stripped off and thrown over the rotor into the table auger instead of out the front of the header. ( see drawings under "design history" to better understand this) Lots of good info under "how to set up your combine." Stripper rotor speed, concave mods, etc.

---- I'm in agreement with everything Jon, Josh, and Phil have already said. To add a bit to Jon's discussion on selecting a head height, there are several reasons you don't want to go any lower than you have too, header loss can become an issue not only because the "wall" of wheat is missing but in varieties prone to shattering if you run the nose of the hood too low so that the heads are above it you actually force the wheat to do a double bend, it bends towards the combine when it first comes into contact then has to bend back around the nose of the hood, then rapidly snap back upright prior to hitting the rotor. I've seen the mechanics of this cause a great deal of shatter before the wheat ever gets to the rotor. ---- Most header loss comes from running excessive rotor speed and too slow of ground speed. Only run the rotor as fast as you need to, the head as low as you have too, then drive fast. When conditions are good the field should look almost a little shaggy behind. If you are removing the entire head then you are either running the rotor too fast, the head too low, or a combination of both. Is header loss a problem in drought damaged wheat that is thin and short? How about going through winter killed or drowned out patches? Also, how do they handle going through weedy patches, like kochia? You get little stripper header loss if you push the header as hard as possible. Have had good results in drought damaged stuff that yield as little as 15 bu /a. Very short wheat is a danger to the stripper rotor if your fields have rocks.  Weeds like kochia go through pretty good, upright weeds will often have part of the leaves stripped off with most of the plant still standing in the field, so less weeds go in the combine than direct cut stuff. RVS Rice Special Range: 2002 onwards (10 to 28 foot widths) RSD Range: 2004 onwards (10 to 32 foot widths) CVS Cereal special Range: 2001 onwards (10 to 32 foot widths) These three models share a common frame design. The auger and rotor are placed closer together and grain is moved directly from the rotor to the auger. The deeper flighted larger diameter auger is able to handle more straw than before, this coupled with a larger shear bolt gives both these machines a significant advantage when harvesting lodged crops. Both models feature a new variable speed belt drive which enables the operator to make rotor speed adjustments from the cab. The RVS range features more stainless steel than on previous rice special models. The crop deflector, top hood and floor are stainless and the auger flighting and retractable auger fingers are made from hardened steel. Extensive field testing has proven that a deeper flighted auger sitting in a trough will feed better than a smaller one sitting on a flat pan. It is with this theory in mind that the RX shaker pan machine was discontinued in favour of the direct feeding RVS header. The RVS and CVS machines both feature variable speed drive systems enabling the operator to adjust the rotor speed from the cab. The RSD model is equipped with a fixed pulley belt drive using 4 belts. This is recommended for rice and grass seed applications where few speed changes are necessary and more power is required at the rotor.

lodged wheat: My first experience with the shelbourne header was in lodged winter wheat and i had all of the problems listed in the previous replies and then some. i called a man in SD who had been using shelbournes for many years and he asked me how fast i was traveling. turns out i was going too slow. In lodged or perfectly flat wheat, set the head on the ground and do not allow your speed to dip below 3.2 mph and set the shield to the "lodged wheat setting." When i followed his advise, everything worked wonderful. haven't had a problem since. we have harvested 85 bu spring wheat laying flat, like 1" depth, and done an amazing job. just don't slow down unless you are turning. when going into lodged wheat that is laying towards you, touch the header on the ground and then raise up 8-10 inches and you will get 95% of the crop. when the wheat is laying straight away from you, a 10 degree angle is all you need to achieve 90%. if you cannot get low enough, adjust your skids. if you adjust them all the way, you can dig a hole. just watch out for rocks and badger holes when running on the skids at 3-4 mph! also, the stripper header doesn't like to turn while harvesting, so a straight back and forth approach works a lot better. with 2 machines in the field, you can achieve 41+ acres/ hour with 28' heads and old worn out 9600's or even 8820's. if you run 2- case-IH 8010's with 40' drapers at 5mph you can get 48.5 acres per hour. do i need to do math on cost/acre? another benefit of the stripper head is the residue. the stripper head has replaced our other grain head, heavy harrow, grass herbicide program, and replacing sickle sections. i love that header. in ND i have witnessed the 40" stubble fill to the top with my neighbor's snow, melt in Dec. and refill in Jan. and still be warmer and drier come spring time. soybean yields? Wow. in 06, we received 7" of rain. 5" came in may and up to June 15th. it didn't rain again until September when we got 2 more inches right before harvest. The stripper cut stubble fields produced 20-25 bu more than the tillage neighbors and 8 bu better than soy into corn on corn, 10 bu better than soy into soy. worth its weight in gold. Coup, I had to learn from scratch. Here's what I learned. First raise the hood a little and pull into the field 50 feet. Stop the machine and don't raise the header. Look to see how deep the fingers are into the crop. If they are into the crop enough then set the hood to just be leaning the heads forward. I found the best way is to have the wheat heads about at the top of the head but not so deep that it causes the head to "whiplash" on the hood. Once I have the depth of the fingers set and the hood where it needs to be I just drive by the hood be just over the top of the crop. It doesn't hurt to be too deep but it will just cause more wear and pull harder. Also, I don't think you can drive too fast in thin crops. We ran 9 mph in 20 bu. wheat last year. 6 mph in 60 bu. wheat. Their a lot of fun once you get used to it. I wouldn't want to go back to using a regular grain platform.

Seeding issues

[Click on the label "direct seeding" at the bottom of post for more posts on the subject.] 

A recent survey of our 2012 spring seeded fields shows drill problems:  My conclusion is that we have hit the wall on residue and our current methods of managing it.  We are a season behind getting a handle on this issue.  The cross-slot drill did much better at the Thornton place; but, depth of material, and inconsistent distribution shows problems with that drill as well.  The straw distribution(management) of our Gleaner N7 is among the worst in the industry.  Replacing the old girl with a newer machine with the micro cut straw chopper is one option we have been looking at; however, field observations show that they have distribution issues as well on these hills.  The hillsides are left with ribbons of fine chop that will be difficult for disc drills to penetrate.  The alternative for us is to replace our header with a Shelbourn Stripper head for the 2012 harvest.  This head will leave most of the stubble intact, standing tall in the field, allowing a disc type opener to slip through the canopy and penetrate into mineral soil.  Forget putting a hoe type drill in that environment.
      Our  drill was not used in 2011(all our crop was seeded with the cross-slot drill).  We gave it a quick check, seeing that fertilizer and seed was being delivered to the seed row; however, we should have check more closely about seed depth.  One half the drill did OK, but the other half did not.  Field conditions changed and we didn't make the necessary adjustment.  It will take more looking, but it appears that we have too much duff for this style and arrangement of openers and packer wheels.  Although we seed shallow, in mineral soil, we leave a substantial mid row ridge.  Deep residue combined with long, uncut straw,  remaining after mowing the field, from wheel crush, promotes a drag and drop situation, resulting in an uneven seed row surface.  The mustard crop with it's tiny seed is especially bad.  Were it not for the insurance, we would tear most of it out and fallow the ground.  This is an example where insurance will hold the money together, but you better not regularly farm for the insurance.
       Some of the difficulties encountered by the cross-slot drill is from the uneven ground conditions left from our hoe drill.  Drilling at a slight angle to our hoe drill rows is helpful for the cross-slot drill.
       Our fall seeded crops using the cross-slot drill have all been excellent.

Some research on this topic follows:

                              Uneven Seeding is “the worst”

         Crops seeded unevenly “are the worst,” says Dr. Yantai Gan, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist in Swift Current. Shallow seeded plants emerge several days faster, competing with the slower emerging, deep seeded plants for water, light and soil nutrients. Yields can be reduced by 50% or more and there can be 10 days between the first and last plants to emerge, which can be crucial in a frost year, he stresses.

Dr. Gan says frost or no frost, crops seeded shallow and uniform have a definite edge. They emerge more quickly and evenly, mature faster, and have higher yields. He led a three- year study that showed canola, mustard, and flax planted uniformly at 3⁄4 of an inch in early May emerged 3 to 5 days faster than seeds planted at 2 inches and had yields up to 25 % higher. With lentils, the yields increased up to 15%. A small plot study with wheat showed a 27% yield increase at 1 inch compared to 2 inches.

         [My comment: --Twenty years ago another researcher from Canada reported that 90% of a crops (wheat) yield was from the plants that that emerged within three days of each other.  Those emerging later were basically filler.  It didn't make any difference whether the crop emerged in 5 days or two weeks --the importance was that it emerged all together.]

          [My comment: -- A comment to a blog post on seeding depth of Peas -- shallow vs deep.  Everyone has their own theory, and they all work to some extent.  I base my idea of seeding peas deep (3-4") on a neighbors comment to me many years ago.  His statement was " my neighbor seeds shallow (1-1.5").  I seed at (3-4").  His peas comes up earlier and looks fantastic, while mine look puny in comparison early on.  I always out yield him in the end."   My theory on this is that in our environment, deep seeding (provided you can seed consistently at depth) allows the root mass to access moisture longer than shallow seeded peas.  Peas don't provide early canopy cover, so evaporation takes a big toll on moisture near the soil surface.  Unless a DS drill has the capacity to adjust down force for differences in soils and residue, seeding 3-4" will be difficult to establish a stand with even emergence.

Emile deMilliano, Agricore United:      

When I first started working with direct seeding equipment, I believed the one area where we would see major development would be openers. But besides some tweaking of original openers, I must say I’m a bit disappointed in the lack of development.

        Both PAMI and AFMRC have studied the issue of openers and their conclusions were the same. “All openers work most of the time if properly adjusted for the conditions at hand!” It is not realistic to expect to find the perfect opener for all conditions.

AFMRC did suggest slowing down (< 5mph) as this did improve the performance of every opener they tested.

          What do we know? We know organic matter levels improve over time. We know that carbon sequestration has, and is occurring. We have noticed better water infiltration and fewer problems with excess water. As well, lower soil moisture evaporation and higher moisture use efficiency has been apparent.

       So what are we not seeing?  We saw a period of increased N immobilization where microorganisms tie up free and available N as an energy source as they adjust to increased amounts of straw residue on the soil surface.  

Banding much of our N below this straw residue does minimize the impact of immobilization.  

Over time, however, as microorganisms adjust and organic matter levels increase, the rate of mineralization (release of N from organic matter) begins to outpace the rate of immobilization (tie-up of N by micro- organisms). This results in an extra boost of N available to the crop. Research in numerous other countries suggests it takes at least 15 years for this process to occur.

So does that mean we can expect a huge release of N starting in year 16? No, not really.

      [my comment:-- Mineralization requires fuel, heat, oxygen.  When we quit tilling, soil gases stabilized leaving high carbon dioxide content and relative low oxygen level.  The "furnace" effect was reduced, so less mineralized N resulted.  To calculate the amount of N needed for the crop it includes a calculation related to the OM content of your soil for mineralization that takes place under tillage.  With no tillage, that number should be reduced and replaced by applying additional N.  For our ground that means adding another 20-50 # of N until the soil microbes readjust as suggested above.]

       

          

Expressed opinions on Erosion

Occasionally I discover what a small world (mind set) I live in, --- thinking that everyone is on the same wave length about soil erosion.  Recently I have experienced two statements differing from my attitude on conservation.   1)- In a discussion about two farmers doing direct seeding, I made a statement that, " They obviously had a conservation ethic for doing this"!  The other person I was conversing with rebutted my statement by saying, "No, I don't think they do it for conservation!  They do it to keep the Department of Ecology away from their door"!  That was a stunning statement to me.  2)- The Department of Ecology had a news release talking about soil erosion in the Palouse and extolling the virtue of direct seeding.  After I and a friend read the release, he commented to me that his interpretation was that Ecology thought that every cultivated field eroded.  My response was that, "That was mostly true"!  His response was, "I disagree"!  Two revelations like this in a week is hard on my synapses.
      Another conversation related to conservation that I experience this week showed my deficiency in instant recall.  The discussion was around filter strips associated with a stream and the vegetation height necessary to maintain filtering action.  My friend stated that the vegetation needed to be short, or it just laid down and everything would roll over it and enter the creek.  This is not in line with NRCS research, or DOE's thinking.   I answered poorly.  I should have stated something along the line of: -- fast moving water indicates a problem upland of the stream, and that filter strips are not effective in this type of scenario.  Filter strips are effective with slow moving water flowing in a sheet across the landscape dropping the sediment load (with associated contaminates) as it moves through the filter strip toward the stream.  NRCS likes grass filters to be maintained at about half their mature height, roughly 12-18 inches.  This has to do as much about plant health as it does for the filter aspect.  Plants munched to and maintained near the crown (that neat clean groomed look) leaves the plant in poor health, unable to recover rapidly for a long lasting (sustainable) stand.  This scenario also encourages weed species to take root, giving the desired plants more competition for survival.

Some DS Drills

This was our original DS drill bought in 1992.  The poly tanks are an upgrade from the original.  AgPro of Lewistion built the drill.  Originally this single pass drill was set up on 9" rows with a narrow hoe opener with down pressure supplied to the parallel linkage by a hydraulic accumulator  This basic style is still current production.  The winter of 2013-2014 the tanks were used on our new CrossSlot drill.  The remaining drill was sold.

This is another drill style used in the area.  It's a farm shop built, ≈51' wide, hoe type opener, capable of two types of fertilizer.  A large seed hopper with air delivery to the openers.  This large machine is challenging to move on the public roads.

This drill was one of the first successful no-till drills made.  It's a "Yielder".  They came in a variety of widths 12' to 20' in several spacing configurations, and use very massive double disc openers that incorporate deep banding of fertilizer as well.  This is still a great drill to start Direct Seeding with.  It is not finicky about residue condition, although it is prone to hairpin. Do to it's opener weight, soft ground can prove challenging.  Parts are starting to be difficult to acquire.

This is a 2014 JD model 1890 (?), 50' (?) drill behind a 600hp Quad.   The openers are heavy single disc on 7.5"(?) spacing.  It places starter but no deep band fertilizer.  This is part of a two pass system where an Exactrix fertilizer unit precedes seeding.

This is our new 2014 farm shop built CrossSlot type single pass drill.  28 openers on 10" spacing.  This drill needs a minimum of 500hp, 50k weight to pull it without issues.  See post of 5/3/14 "NEW CROSS-SLOT DRILL for more detail.

Another larger CrossSlot single pass drill built by AgPro of Lewiston, ID.  36 openers on 10" row spacing.  Two types of liquid fertilizer are placed near the seed.

This is a "true" CrossSlot single pass drill, built, boxed and shipped from New Zealand to Montana.  This unit is 28 openers on 12" (?) spacing.  This unit is set up for dry fertilizer.  The mainframe, low tool bar design of this drill are the basis for the two US built copies shown above.

Another type of single pass drill.  It is 50+ ft wide.  It is a hoe type drill.  Row spacing is 12"(?).  This is farm shop built.  Large capacity seed and fertilizer containers.  The starter is carried on the tractor. This drill is unique in that it has a swinging hitch that automatically moves side to side depending on the slope of the hill it is traversing to keep the unit pulling straight.  Challenging to move on public roads.

Another manufacture of a single pass DS drill.  This is a hoe drill on 12" row spacing.

 This unit was built by AgPro and then modified.

This unit uses a Flexicoil frame and hoe opener.  

bare patches

 

This is a dramatic visual example of what is happening to our hills under a "conventional cultivation system" of crop production.  Over the 100+ years that this field has been plowed, disc'd, cultivated, weeded, and harrowed, with some of these operations being done repeatedly in any one crop year, the thin mantel of top soil has been removed from the area shown, leaving these bare patches in the winter wheat crop.  The following website gives information on soil and it's value to crop production. <ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/a0443e/a0443e01.pdf>.   Without the [O and A horizon] crop production is limited.  The "O" horizon is the surface crop residue.  The "A"horizon is  the mineralized organic layer below the "O" horizon.  These two layers, O and A, make up the spongy layer of the soil that is biologically active, and resists the erosive action of rain droplets, and the scouring energy of the wind.  The deeper the layer, the higher the nutrient production capability and water holding capacity.  The "A" horizon is the "engine" that is the future for crop production in a Direct Seed System.  It has the potential to be manipulated, to make and redistribute nutrients for crop production. With todays technology, this erosion process(pic above) can be stopped and the soils rebuilt; however, the rebuilding is a very slow process.  NRCS considers a loss of 10,000 pounds per acre as sustainable.  That is a little less than 3mm depth of soil.  The field above, as an example, receives a number of rain and wind events over the course of a year along with several tillage operations.  It's anyones guess as too the amount of soil that has moved off the surface of this field, but my guess is that it is in excess of 20mm over the course of the two years that it took to raise this crop.  To add insult to injury, that exposed  poor soil ["B"horizon] is eroding down and overlaying the better producing ["A"] soils.   Those soils then, tend to produce at a lower production level.  So, over time, the bare patches enlarge and field yield average shrinks.  These areas will become more prevalent and larger until all tillage stops and residue is considered an asset instead of a liability on the hilltops and hillsides.