North central New York, actually. Yes cut it with a swather and let it dry. The buckwheat is sort of a bushy branched plant with a structure that is similar to a bushy soybean plant, about 3 to 4 feet tall. The highest producing branches are off of node 4, so it can be cut nearly a foot off of the ground, so the swath sits up pretty high on the stubble. The seeds are in clusters and have a hard shell with no husk so rain is no problem, they dry out good as new after a shower. One thing about buckwheat is that in western NY you could plant as late as mid July, so you could potentially no-till directly into stubble after a wheat harvest and get a crop off 73 days later, one of the few opportunities to double crop around here. Other neat things about it is it can outgrow and shade out about any weed around, and it breaks down rock phosphates so no fertilizer is needed. A lot of organic farmers use it for weed control and soil improvement. I kind of ramble on but I am kind of hooked on growing the stuff.
