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NW IA | Last year I used my single rotor rake and it worked perfectly, but was painfully slow.
I bought a wheel rake this year but it would not move the stalks to the center due to the pattern left by my combine.
I did a search here and found a recommendation to cut the stalks with a mower-conditioner. I tried it and used the wheel rake to combine 2 9 foot passes. This resulted in perfect "drive straight" windrows, but I would like to avoid leaving the ground that bare, and the wear on the mower knives.
I went back to experimenting with the wheel rake dirrectly in the stalks and found that if I ran down one of the standing rows with the tractor it made an acceptable windrow. I got about half as many Bella's per acre as I did using the mower conditioner, leaving more ground cover.
So next year I may add stompers to the straddle rows on the corn head or find a way of rolling the stalks in the same direction of travel that the rake and baler will follow. If I had an 8 row corn head the pass would match my rake width, but it might make my 1620 want to stay in the shed.
Edited by Curious 11/18/2023 07:33
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Baling Stalks. And What I Will Try Next Year- Pics
