Under an Endless Sky

Yesterday, Ladger was able to combine 80 acres - about twice as much as he was able to do when he was combining peas. The reason is that we are now using a stripper header instead of our flexheader. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain a little. The header is the part that cuts and brings the crop into the combine to be threshed out (separation of seed from seed coat and other junk). Some farmers prefer to cut down the crop into swaths before they start combining to help the crop dry down quicker and then their header just brings those swaths into the combine. We don't like to do that because if it rains once those swaths are down, it takes forever to dry and the seeds very often start sprouting right there in the field (what a mess!!!). So, the flexheader is great because it follows the contours of the field quite well and one can cut very close to the ground although it is a slower process. We absolutely needed that for our peas because they were no higher than a couple of inches - I kid you not! But the stripper header does not cut at all - it simply strips the seed from the plant. If the crop is thick enough and tall enough, it is the way to go. So Ladger has been able to use the stripper header on his lentil crop and it's making a difference. As it is we will need most if not all of October to finish harvest. We got our first major frost in the last couple of days but will probably not see much damage as once the seed is dried enough, it does not matter any more (it causes the most damage when the seed is still green). Rain is the bigger problem now because it softens the mature seed and bleaches it which reduces quality. So here's hoping for clear skies and fast 'stripping'.