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| Jorn, I'm in the Pacific Northwest Palouse hills. Dry peas have been grown here since the 30's or earlier. We have old combines and they have floating cutterbars that have been on combines since the 30's . The floating cutterbar hangs literally off the front of the header by chains and has leaf springs to make it flex. The leaf springs attatched to give it a spring action. The sickle drive is the most difficult to keep up as it runs in the dirt. The floating cutterbar is a predicessor of the flex header used in soybeans and became common in the 70's. The floating cutterbar once built by J E Love is out of business now except for parts I think. They will allow dirt to pass over the sickle and the peas go up about 3-6 inches into the header bottom by steel guide strips leading to the header bottom. Dirt will flow between the steel strips. There is a flat skid that the cutterbar slides on about every 3-4 ft apart.
The company we sell to still likes the vine type better than the stand ups, but they're getting closer to good quality stand ups that will replace the vine type. We don't have alot of rain problems at harvest usually and if it rains we will have to wait till the ground dries out. It is a drier climate than western/central europe. Peas can bleach though. Haven't had moisture problems with peas as long as I've been farming, but lost 1/2 the value of a wheat grow 3 years ago from sprouted wheat. Our wheat (soft white wheat) is bred to germinate with very little rain and won't take alot of rain with warm weather. Here's a Farm Photo of one of our pea bars. You'll have to enlarge it to see it well. http://www.farmphoto.com/photography/message.asp?dsply=all&mid=1061... | |
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What are they doing here?
