Windrowing grass seed in NZ

[Light Land]

A few windrowing pictures for you guys.

[Light Land]

Inside the cab.

The big gauge shows you how much pressure the front is putting on the ground,other than that it's much like a basic combine inside.

Any Q's just ask.

[rich.new holland]

why do you cut it with that  \ cant you put it straight through the combine then 

[jcb4cxkid]

looks like a nice machine to drive 8)

[Light Land]

why do you cut it with that  \ cant you put it straight through the combine then 

Because grass seed seed heads don't all dry down/rippen evenly,by cutting them you give the green seed heads at the bottum of the plant time to dry down.

The ripe seeds on the seed heads at the top of the plant are often blown out in the wind,by laying the crop down you save alot of seed loss.

Just about every farmer has tryed to straight cut grass seed but 99.9% of the time you end up busting a knife or you loss alot of seed waiting till the crop has dryed down enough.

[jdc]

Looks a lot more comfortable than some of the Shelbourne machines up here. 

We used to grow grass for seed too but it was never dry enough at harvest and the swaths could spoil........

[Light Land]

Interesting John.

Grass seed is a major crop here,as we have the climate for growing it.Often you will make more money from grass seed than wheat here John!.

Here we say from a 3000kg\ha crop only 1800kg/ha is the growing costs plus you get good straw for your stock or too sell also with the paddock back early you can buy store lambs to fatten untill winter before ploughing the ground ready for winter wheat.