Salvaging whole crop

[Digester Man]

A lot of our rye has gone down this year and we are pondering whether to mow the fields with a Big M and group it into rows. Have been told this is the best way to salvage the crop that’s on the ground but it could be at the expense of some of the heads which could get knocked off and lost.

There’s probably about a quarter of the affected fields which has gone completely horizontal and by the time it’s ready for cutting in another week’s time more could have gone down. So it’s weighing up whether to accept the losses with the disco header, or try to group it and accept the loss of some heads with the groupers.

What would you do?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Would a combine header pick it up or maybe a kemper?

Mow and rake would bring it into a huge swath which I have seen done before, if the crop is green you won't loose many heads.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Cut it now and crimp it

 

[Al R]

If the direct cut header won’t get it you havnt got much chance with a mower? Why not try it with the direct cut, if you can’t get it, drive around the patch and send the mowers in, going back in with pickup header likefor grass after you’ve finished. How stoney are you? I wouldn’t want to pick up to many acres with a pickup reel if you have the corn cracker in..

 

[Chae1]

@AgriiMark has done a fair bit of flat stuff.

 

[DRC]

Cut it now and crimp it

I’d imagine it’s for an AD plant, not to feed livestock

 

[Ian01]

Disc header should do as good as anything, mowing and picking up makes chopping power hungry and chop length goes out the window due to orientation of crop feed to the feed rolls, why this late for wholecrop??

 

[Mc115reed]

Rye is generally wholecropped by now??... a good forager driver with plenty of patients would get it up

 

[Digester Man]

The English rye seems to be cut a lot earlier, it’s only starting over here now. Straw still pure green, heads still filling out, prob be ready another week to ten days. The power is in the starch so we don’t go until the grain is at soft dough, straw rarely gets too far advanced. Usually 38-45% DM. Never need a corn cracker

We have cut flat stuff before with the disc header and she would struggle to get it, tends to run over the top of it. Can try cutting it all one direction or others claim to have had success mowing instead.

 

[DRC]

The English rye seems to be cut a lot earlier, it’s only starting over here now. Straw still pure green, heads still filling out, prob be ready another week to ten days. The power is in the starch so we don’t go until the grain is at soft dough, straw rarely gets too far advanced. Usually 38-45% DM. Never need a corn cracker

We have cut flat stuff before with the disc header and she would struggle to get it, tends to run over the top of it. Can try cutting it all one direction or others claim to have had success mowing instead.

No location mentioned, so where’s over here.

 

[Digester Man]

The north west of Northern Ireland

 

[Al R]

No location mentioned, so where’s over here.

Northern Ireland he’s based.

@Rob_AD you can angle a mower into the ground to get it where as you can’t with a direct disc because foreign objects going through and no forward tilt..

I’ve seen plenty of people fail to combine spring barley and have mown it with a plain mower and then combined the mown swath as it’s already detached from the ground, they managed to get 80% of the barley.

 

[Kingofgrass]

Plain mower,shorten the top link,row up on tick over you’ll get it.how much you got that’s down ?

 

[dazza b]

Do it with a direct disc header as normal but do it one way slow job we have done it like this for customers before

 

[Ian01]

The English rye seems to be cut a lot earlier, it’s only starting over here now. Straw still pure green, heads still filling out, prob be ready another week to ten days. The power is in the starch so we don’t go until the grain is at soft dough, straw rarely gets too far advanced. Usually 38-45% DM. Never need a corn cracker

We have cut flat stuff before with the disc header and she would struggle to get it, tends to run over the top of it. Can try cutting it all one direction or others claim to have had success mowing instead.

And your happy feeding rye at 38-45% dm? We aim to be finished by the time we reach 36 ish, much higher and it doesnt clamp well and is not overly digestable

 

[DaveGrohl]

How long have you been growing it Rob? What growth regs did you put on? We finished ours 10 days ago and I was worried (falsely) we were a bit late. Variety?

 

[Digester Man]

We have been at it 5 years, in that time we have grown Pro Gas, Pro Power, Hell Top and this year Eterno. They have been pushing shorter straw and heavier grain yield, its hard to say really if the grain is getting much better but they are def getting shorter. Pro Gas would have been above my head, Eterno is only slightly above my waist.

Growth reg program we have:

1st Application:- End of March. Growth stage approx 30. Moddus at 0.15L/Ha plus Chlormequat at 1.0 L/Ha.

2nd Application:- Second half of April. Growth stage approx 32. Medax Max at 0.2Kg/Ha plus Chlormequat at 1.5 L/Ha.

We got a sample of our clamp silage tested for biogas yield a couple of years ago, it achieved 237m3 / ton fresh weight which is well above book value. I don’t know the technical term for the stage when we cut, but the grain is like soft dough, there’s no moisture at all and can be squeezed but is slightly firm and will stick to your fingers. When it hits that point I send the chopper in. The straw will usually be half green half yellow, dry matter usually high 30s early 40s depending on the year. Never had any problems ensiling and never used a corn cracker.

 

[DaveGrohl]

So has it gone down according to variety? Only our second year here, first year was a shambles, treated as a steep learning curve......

We went once with 0.3 Moddus and 1.15 Chlormequat early Apr (GS31) but have been struck by how springy the crop has been all summer since, would've been astonished if any of it went down. Ours was about eye level or about 5'6". We've been big fans of Moddus at the right time over anything else since it was introduced. Sorry I haven't any advice on gathering it up.

 

[Digester Man]

Couple of pics taken yesterday. The stuff that’s gone down is on heavier land, the stuff still standing is mostly on lighter ground. It’s hard to say what the cause has been, we don’t usually get this happen but it has been pretty wet here of late and the heavy showers have knocked it down. More heavy rain tonight. Pigeons are now having a field day

 

[caveman]

Direct cut with a flail double chop to suck it up off the ground?