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Sanilac Co. Michigan | Used to be, like 40 years ago, swathed oats was pretty common around here. Back then even I had a swather. Today, it's pretty much unheard of. I doubt there's more than two working drapers in the county. Too, finding a working pick-up head is tough as well, since guys got away from pulling and windrowing edibles has become a thing of the past as well.
For sure, I think there used to be a lot of dirtier oats and a lot of oats were a nurse crop to a hay seeding, so wasn't uncommon to have to contend with green crap being run through the combine unless they were swathed and left lay for a while.
Swathed oats are almost a pleasure to thrash, but gets kinda problematic if you get an extended wet spell. That's not unheard of here either, so the best option is to straight cut and be done with it, takes a lot of the guess work out of the equation!
I still like to see a few "greenies" when I start cutting. | |
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