ROULEAU, Sask. – Farmers who use stripper headers on their combines say it’s possible to double the workload of their machines.
“We found one machine was doing the work of the other two. Last year when we were under pressure because of the late season, poor weather and with crops laying down, it was impressive,” said Rouleau, Sask. farmer Harold Bean.
Stripper headers, originally modeled after green pea harvesters, strip only the heads or pods, along with short pieces of stalk and a few leaves from field crops, leaving standing stubble at almost its full height. Combines, relieved from the duty of processing straw along with the grain, are able to handle more product at higher speeds.
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Plastic fingers mounted on a rotor gather the heads of the crop, grouping them together and slicing them off. The rotor, turning between 500 and 1,000 r.p.m. depending on crop conditions, rotates toward the standing crop, lifting straw and grain upward prior to removing the seed. Seed pods or heads are then dumped into the trough of the table auger and carried to the feederhouse of the combine.
British built and designed, the Shelbourne Reynolds version of the unit was tested and marketed in the Australian and American plains. Intended for areas with light crops and large areas to be harvested, the header worked well even in heavy cereal stands where lodging and flattened crops are a problem.
“It will stretch the stalks right back out and leave them standing after a pass over them. Even in conditions like last season,” said Don Kirby, also of Rouleau.
Kirby has used his Massey Ferguson stripper header on his 1980 International 1480 for three seasons. It has reduced repair costs and allowed him to avoid buying another combine.
“I’m running on a worn out set of rub bars. The combine never has to work hard and the only monitor alarm that goes off now is the full hopper buzzer,” said Kirby.
Ideal method
Straw management must be taken seriously because the stubble length is nearly as high as the standing crop. Those using the stripper headers say the long straw is best suited to minimum and zero tillage, with seeding done in 12 inch spacings to avoid dislodging the tall stubble from the ground.
“Discing seed into this stubble would be out the question,” said
Kirby.
Bean said he has had to delay seeding because of extra moisture on the fields trapped by the stubble, “but delays like those I don’t mind waiting for.”
Kirby said the stripped stalks don’t provide as much spring-time shade as he first expected.
“It is kind of like defoliated forest late in the fall. A lot of sunshine gets through to the ground,” he said.
The stripper header is designed to pick crops from Laird lentils to durum wheat. There are few crops the machines won’t harvest but plants such as Eston lentils with small seed pods sitting close to the ground or where flexible headers are required are not recommended for the units.
Prices for either the Shelbourne Reynolds or the Massey Ferguson headers are about $40,000. Flexible headers normally cost $25,000-$30,000. Rigid headers run about $20,000 to $25,000.
