Combines MASSEY S AT HESSTON

Tom, Were you cutting drilled beans or in rowsIJ I found we didn't have moch problem feeding in the drilled beans unless they were short but in rows they tend to bunch a little more. Although, if the stems are dry, they fed in good no matter what.

We do custom work so we run into a little bit of everything. Before we installed the hose, I felt the row beans fed better for us as they tend to get a bit taller. In fact, I feel row beans are just plain easier to cut. You don't HAVE to cut the opposite direction as the last pass in rows - seems the left end of the header tends to knock some beans over with the wobble box sticking out and if we cut in the same direction as the last pass, they are hard to pick back up. With rows, that wobble box fits between the rows and don't knock any down. I do think, however, that you can cover more acres in a day in drilled beans since there is always a foot or two of head sticking out in rows that isn't being utilized. Some guys around here will cut row beans at an angle. Of all the beans we cut ourselves, ours are about the only ones in rows and we leave our fields fairly rough. Cutting at angles is not an option!

I would bet the full finger headers are feeding better than old for another reason beyond the fingers for they also use or can get the newer HCC real that has the steggered teeth from bat to bat. I do see where the fingers would be good for heads with cutterbar closer to auger than what Gleaner uses esspecially in the tall straw. With Gleaners long distance from cutterbar to auger there would be trouble feeding the short straw esspecially without air reel or steggered tooth pickup reel. I always liked the way the old 300's feed in the long straw but had nightmares in the short or tough straw. With the tube or hump installed it will keep the reel in contact with crop thus feed stays even. Even the 800 has quite a distance from cutterbar to auger so it benifits with hose or hump trick. So with the tall 7" flighting 800 coupled up with the new reel it can feed short, tough, and tall straw very well without a bunch of extra fingers along the auger. Boy this subject wandered a long ways from Massey's at Hesston. Best of luck with your 72.