Combines Stripper header to maximize straw tonnage

They tried that in our area a few years back. It was a fad. It did not last. Between the yield loss with a stripper head, starting fires from disc bines mowing straw,and the extra cost of mowing it was not economicaly sound. No one has a stripper head in this area any more.

I've done this where the straw was heavy and the header was wide and it made a huge windrow behind the combine. You run over a little straw but I thought it worked well here in the midwest.

P.S. I have never run a stripper header though.

If you want quality long straw and the quantity also baling behind a stripper and a haybine works very well. I have not experienced anymore yield loss with my stripper than a regular head. I strip so I can get the double crop beans in earlier and I also like the bare ground to plant. I agree that there is more expense to cutting the straw but maybe not when you compare the extra wear, fuel, when you are using a combine to become a mower also. Fire has never been an issue since the straw is tough when it is mowed. The price of steel will not allow me to replace the stripper but the price of grain may keep me from replacing anything!!

I have seen straw swathed even behind a regular header. They just keep the combine headers as high as possible to clip off the heads. The swathers cut real close to the ground. It means an extra trip over the field, but you end up with a lot of long straw that is not dinged up very much. A stripper header would be even better.

Ya, that's what we do when we want all the straw, head the wheat off with the combine and then come back in with a haybine.

Bad experiences with grain loss using a stripper header(Shelbourne Reynolds)may have been with older headers in poor condition or a inattentive operator. A SR stripper header of the CX series,98 and newer will have less loss than a conventional header,plus increasing combine capacity by 50-100%. I would not use anything else in spring wheat or flax. We had less than 5 inches of rain this year,plus a month of temps of 90-100. Tall stripper straw that caught snow for extra moisture plus moisture conserving no till has given me an above average crop,even in these extreem conditions.

I agree with Rotor Man. There is more to a stripper head than just driving fast. If you know how to keep it at the right dept in the grain and do proper maintainence on the stripper bars the newer models will do as well or better than a conventional setup while increasing the acres per day and having minimal wear on the machine. Double crop bean really shine behind the stripper. They are always taller and maybe a little better also. I strip for my neighbor while he used his own conventional setup to do other custom work. He throws a hula hoop for measure and says he is making money with my stripper versus his own machine. I have a newer Massey Furguson. I dont' know if they make it or it just has their name on it. I think it is a good piece of equipment.

We use a Shelbourne head and use half the fuel of a regular head, plus we can do almost double the acres per day. We swath some acres to bale and get a very good quality straw. If there is some foxtail in the straw, the cows eat it like hay.

The price of iron, these days, must be figured closely as the acres flow beneath these machines. The issue has been discussed with the narrow corn in our area, CIN, The lodging and slow going soon eats the profits, if any, as the wear and fuel are both consumed by the combines. At $30 or more per hour to run these beasts the least time out there the better, not giving in to quality as being an excuse to run fast. Perhaps that is a drawback to a stripper, running fast and the fear of hitting a hole or whatever falls from the sky or our memmory. G-d seems to bless us with too many things to humble us as we grow older----or maybe not enough!!! I hope the current prices are not one of them although I am beginning to feel like that "swinging charriot"--- low that is.