Mike can we get an updated machinery tour during the winter? Seems like you had big changes from the last time you did it. Keep it going man!

I am a retired police officer but I believe that I should have been a farmer watch as many of your videos as I can and really enjoy doing so keep it up

Keep your head held high Brother Mike you are doing fine don’t get discouraged! You guys will be good. God Bless you with everything going smoothly for the rest of the Harvest! ❤️🖖🏼🇺🇸

Hey Mike, Your struggles with those rotoshears baffles me. I have used mine for 10 years with no stationary knives and the only time they have ever stalled is when I wrapped some fence wire in them... I have swathed some 60-70 bu crops with them no problem. And as far as I'm concerned the WETTER the canola is the better.. makes the plants heavier on the canvas and lubes the crop to go through the hole. When the crop is dry... it gets light and fluffy... it wants to stay suspended more on the canvas. I never swath in the heat of the day... only at night or in the rain.... thats it. I have been swathing canola for 30 years... at the end of the day it just takes some seat time to find your mojo... good luck the rest of the way.

My family has a smaller grain operation in Manitoba. Have always swathed canola as the shell-resistant varieties of canola have only started to become popular out here in the last 10 or so years. We typically wait until all the seeds are solid green, and squish like a ripe garden pea (Clear watery seeds obviously being too early, as they shrivel like a raisin if cut). Cloudy rainy weather will "wash" out the greens once swathed and speed up the seed drying (blackening) process. When you wait until the plant is dying & majority of seeds are black then you run into shelling issues and have to swath at night, early morning when cool & dewy. Start combining a few weeks later when you can roll(squish) a sample of the seeds on a strip of tape and 95%+ are yellow inside.

I am really dating myself. Working on a large farm in the 70’s, there was no computer assisted or operating programs on the tractors or implements. What a change that has taken place since then. Thank you for sharing with us Mike!

Thanks Mike, I love going to these fields and hearing the sound of the eyes of the harvest.

@itz_lexiii_

Жыл бұрын

Wow who would of thought I would meet you on a Mike video. Love your content too.

My wife loves your Canadian accent, but we still love your content as we are miles apart in types of crops and timing of harvesting 😊🙏🇺🇸

I miss swathing! Best job imo.

Great work Mike brings back old memories from the 80s from up in that region of Sask

Another great video, always look forward to them 🎉 thanks again! 😊

You probably know this already Mike, but for foggy cab, warm heat plus air conditioner on as well as this dehumidifies the cab and gets rid of the fog

Mike one of the issues with the GPS is because how thick the cloud cover is. If it’s really thick the gps will drop out

A little less stressful for you Mike in that field! 👍👍

It definitely looks like you should get the W170

It's nice to see snarky the swather actually working.

Thanks

Great job on the swather.👍👍✌✌

Farming In the north is so much different than the south. I don’t think I would be spraying anything up there. The swather is still an important piece of equipment in the north. It’s an extra operation but the days get pretty short. Also, an unexpected snow storm could possibly show up. 😮 You must be getting burnt out by now. Take a little holiday when you are finished.

Hey Mike, love your videos mate, one observation, with those swather headers, is the a reason they couldn’t make them adjustable, make the hole wider for thicker crops or narrow for thinner crops ect. Cheers mate 👍🇦🇺

Angle swathing eliminates east, west direction issues. I run shears on my swather and if I don’t want to use them, shut off oil supply and put divider boards on. They slid over the front rods and bolt to shear frame. Work excellent. Never have to remove shears. Look good up north

Great video Mike good luck swathing your canola

Your doing OK Mike. We still have canola standing that were going to straight combine. Still a bit green

In general the field looks ok.

Can't wait to see you straight cut some of that canola, alot of material going in the combine at one time.

Hopefully it stop raining for you and warm up also, have a good day

@carlfalt174

Жыл бұрын

Since this video was produced the weather has improved

am dating myself but it "used to be" that Deere "windrowers" were built for hay and a swathing grain head was an afterthought // and hence possibly a narrow throat // Macdon built for Western Canada and swathing so design specs have a wider throat

@tmlf1239

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely true. The Deere swathers are hay machines. and good ones. They and Case and New Holland just mount honeybee grain heads on their swathers. Not nearly as good as the MacDon head.

I love swathing or on the discbine

Mornin Mitchell fam!

The easiest thing to do is swath canola east and west...with the way its leaning ..but you can't always do that...the roto shears are the best option for going north south

Mike, as a rule with green seed canola, if you can rub it in between 2 fingers without busting them open, you are good to go. What you need to cure is heat and water, you are getting the rain , let’s hope you get some heat. Sometimes we had to wait 2 weeks after swathing to combine with few greens. Good luck, I see the shelling ,that will grow under the swath and could be a challenge at combine time

Mike I think this will be the swather moving forward.

Had similar problem with my gps losing signal and kicking out like that. Was the two way radio antenna I was using was a magnet temporary antenna and was two close to bubble. Cell phone booster would do it too. Make sure your using the factory antenna system and not a temporary one.

Mike, the auto steer cutting in and out like that is sometimes your autosteer valve on it’s way out

Nice crop!

Danger Mike. Good job .

We had these same rains and man was it annoying because we were waiting for our beans to dry

I think that most KZread farmers tend to underestimate how interesting it is for those of us on this side of the screen to watch the combine or swather running. No commentary,no fancy editing or flashy shots,no cool remarks,or attempt to keep the audience entertained! Just the silence,the sounds of the machine running,the beeping from the tech and whatnot. I love that! Just minute after minute of watching that crop run through the machine! That’s OUR crop,too! It’s eventually going to find its way onto OUR kitchen table. Most of us,except for I suppose the real city slickers,feel a real connection to the land and to harvest! I’m always disappointed when a video is titled “First Day Of Harvest” and then 90% of the video is just the farmer’s ugly mug filling up the screen,explaining what’s going on. That John is taking a load to the elevator in the International. That Bill is in the 2071 pulling the grain cart. That Bob is taking a dump out in the middle of the field. Who is John?! Who is Bill?! Who is Bob?! I don’t care about these guys! Don’t TELL me what’s going on,SHOW me what’s going on! Except for Bob taking a dump. Give me what I want! And what I want is to see crop going through the machine! Don’t make me watch all these YT ads fer nuthin! Just because it’s your land,your crop,your equipment,your camera and your KZread channel,doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want! 😅 (Mike,if you’re reading this,I always enjoy when you explain things and I DONT think that you show your face too much. Sometimes I do wish for a little more of just the machine running,like I said. It’s not boring to us.)

@MegaRpgPlayer

Жыл бұрын

I farmed for 3 yrs and I'm still fascinated watching that crop go through the header. Swathing was my favorite job lol

I literally lost hair trying to combine canola for a neighbor because of the piles. After that year they came out with a cutting device on end of the the cutter to cut the clean divide where it continually wanted to hang up causing the problem. The devices I seen were similar to a chain saw on end of swather

You need tall reciprocating “side knives” on both sides. Like we use on combines here in the UK and on swathers when that was popular for OSR (Canola).

@joemckenna3194

Жыл бұрын

Totally agree hell of a job

We use a upright knife just like on your cutter deck but vertical

My wife was in intensive care a few years ago. Sounds very similar to your cab in this video.😳

The problem with straight-cutting for us is always that it takes 2-3 weeks longer to harvest the canola than when we swath it. For us, this is quite a logistics issue, hence we swath most of our canola. Heavy swathes and rolled down, we've only had wind move the swathes on a couple of occasions. Around here the John Deere dealership mostly sells MacDon swathers. Hay farmers like the John Deere windrowers but no question, if you need to swath canola, MacDon is the machine to have. Best canola swather around. No one even looks at the other green and red swathers for that. And for other specialty crops requiring swathing the MacDon header is the only thing that works for us. Something about the geometry of the header, the hole, and the suspension linkage that works better than anything else. Oddly enough we've used roto-sheers for years without any stationary knife sections bolted on in heavy canola (up to 70 bu/ac) and have never had an issue. But my deck is only 25' wide and probably the reel takes less power to run so the roto-sheer has a hard time stalling it.

@7rixee

Жыл бұрын

Whereabouts do you farm? Is wimter canola out of question in canada? I got 110 bu off that stuff. Not in canada tho 🍁😀

@tmlf1239

Жыл бұрын

Southern Alberta. No winter canola here. Nor winter peas. Don't survive the winter. Would be nice though. Agronomists figure the best spring-planted varieties could yield 100 bu/ac here if we spoon fed them throughout the season. 70 bu is a more realistic average with irrigation. Lately the summer heat has reduced canola yields across the boards. Canola aborts flowers above 30C.

@7rixee

Жыл бұрын

@@tmlf1239 i farm in finland, can only grow oilseed rape. Average yield is a touch short of 80 bu but we almost never pass 30C and get much more rain. 150 k south theyll grow 100+ bu canola. I worked on a farm in north dakota, good canola there. Drove probably 60s/70s swathers all just belts and pulleys, talk about using up your equipment 😂

Hi, not sure if anyone else mentioned it but have you ever considered having side knives fitted they do shatter abit but I bet they be loads better than that lousy disc you have fitted. Good luck on rest your harvest.

enjoy your videos

"I like the John Deere Guidance" as his GPS continually malfunctions haha

Nice video man

Morning

GPS on the fritz... "It's a sensor!"

That thing sounds like a heartbeat monitor 🤣

I’m surprised you don’t have side knives!!

Couldn't cut a touch higher to get more compact swaths and have more stubble to roll them into, to keep wind from blowing them over?

What would crop farmers ever do that only know how to do field work if they lose the electronic telling them where to drive?

I would love a history story about the history of your farm. The ones in the states that are big like yours have like 6 generations of history from like 1890s and on.

@elizabethliska5377

Жыл бұрын

He did have an episode long ago of the original homestead and how long they have been farming.

Most people in the uk use a vertical side knife for cutting canola

@tony98discovery

Жыл бұрын

Is the canola farm near you big?

Magnifique vidéo ce qui moissonneuse ou foches

That's a lot of canola

Hey newb, great vid m8. Keep it up . Love from Holland

@mikemitchell2554

Жыл бұрын

Hahah thanks Robert! 😆

@robertfranssen

Жыл бұрын

@@mikemitchell2554 no thanks needed🤣

Great video Mike, watching here in England, over here we tend to spray Rape/Canola with a product called Pod Stick to prevent it shelling out, don't know if you have an equivalent?.STAY SAFE.

How is your little man doing Mike ? 😊

Hey Mike can you send some of that rain 🌧 our way. We haven't had any decent rain in Idaho in months 😅😅.

I hope your swaths stay there, I've never seen someone NOT Roll them

Mike , you should be well fed with all that wildlife running around . 😊

We have cutter bars for the sides of the head when we go into canola, I´m guessing they´re not fast enough for a swather?

That MacDon is a good swather, I think, A lot of money to buy too.?

Have you seen new fendt 728 gen 7? It has new engine, and maybe it's gonna work much better in cold :D

Would running the end of the Deere swather head 5 feet into the last pass work to reduce the load enough to make it through the throat, and effectively making it a 35 foot?

Hi Michael, Why don't your have vertical cutter bars on the ends of the header, far less shelling. Best Wishes Graham

Mike, what are the orange bands around the reel pipe for? Hope you have good weather to finish harvest. Be careful.

@lynwessel2471

Жыл бұрын

I would assume visibility to oncoming vehicles when driving down the road .

You do have a 35 foot header just lap over 5 feet

@indominusfan436

Жыл бұрын

Iirc its 40ft

@BaileyFarming

Жыл бұрын

We’ve done that in the past on heavy barley crops. We had a 635d on our D450 and we would just set the gps to 28’ and it worked pretty good. For those who know don’t know the model numbers we were running a 35’ head but just over lapping until it was only taking 28’ of crop

@teamstromski

Жыл бұрын

Seems to obvious 😏

Love to watch swathing! Does the red and yellow paint on the head have any significance? Thanks

If you buy that we have a set of vertical knives that should fit that I would sell ya. They work really well. They come off a Macdon header.

@tmlf1239

Жыл бұрын

I've got a sabre saw unit I want to sell too. I think that should tell Mike how well they work in these conditions! haha. Thing won't divide canola worth a darn. Canola just hangs up on those little knives that don't have enough stroke to them. Just shakes the swather. Ditched them and put on roto sheers and so much better. Don't even know the sheer is there. I think the sabre saw thing probably came out of Europe. I see a lot of units like that over there. But here they don't work for whatever reason. When straight cutting we don't use any sheer at all, just normal dividers. But in green swathing conditions, nothing beats the roto-sheer. Although any sheer will split open some pods.

@kherter100

Жыл бұрын

@@tmlf1239 haha. That’s not good. I’ve never used them in canola but I have in mustard and they worked really well. We just got rid of the Macdon headers and kept the knives and never used them since.

Mike I have a question: How does the really important stuff like sound system cooler/fridge and cup holders compare in the John Deere vs. MacJohn / MacDeere

The canola looks like a heavy crop , Is it one of your better yielders ?

Imperial valley call the opening the throat

If you slipped and fell it could turn out bad Be careful

Can a 50ft combine header work on 2 swaths?

That computer must be ancient as it sounds like a 70s computer game Pong.

Moose steaks bbqing after harvest sounds good,but your vids are about thee weeks behind.

One moose or three meese. 😮 . . . On a different note, I had a student who wanted to be a paramedic when he graduated from high school. His dream came true. Unfortunately, he died in northern Alberta when the ambulance he was driving hit a moose at night. A moose is a huge animal compared to a deer. They are so tall that they often end up inside a vehicle. When we have hunted up in northern Alberta we even drive slower than the speed limit because of moose.

Hi Mike. Does your work on the North farm causes any problems with your family on the South farm?

Hey Mike, as a none farmer, I'm really interested in all the screens and buttons you press in the machinery. All the bleeping noices must drive you up the wall. Any chance you could explain what it all does as your using it....?

With modern GPS, surely a header could be designed that chucks the product left or right like a merger???

@Mike-is8qc

Жыл бұрын

That's been around for many years. Most commonly used for double swathing

@laurencegibbs2753

Жыл бұрын

Now who looks like a noob. I’ll use the being English excuse

Hey. After this, what kind of game will we use to shave off these rough spots?

So the W170 is about 100 horses more than the D450?

Mike, remove the rotor shears than you'll have less problems, you'll be able to cut just fine.

Did you and Ashton get a little cabin to stay in while up north, seems like you have little houses across sask

@elizabethliska5377

Жыл бұрын

He said a few episodes ago Ashtyn and her brother share a house they bought together near the north farm long ago.

Where did you mange to get hold of the MacJohn W170? Did you rent it or is it a demo or somethig?

How many acres are you farming up there Mike? Would love to hear more facts on acres. Thanks

@jarrettfullerton2580

Жыл бұрын

I think he's working about 40,000 acres these days, if memory serves.

Mike you said you wish you had a 35’ header. Could you not set your auto steer to where you would only cut 35’ a pass.

Why are you not overlapping more thus putting less through swather ? I can appreciate a narrower cutting width may initially sound like something that would result in longer cutting times per field but if less plugs & bunching is obtained would you not make up the time in the long run plus make the field easier to combine. Just asking as my swathing experience is limited. Possibly needs more of the "Ashtyn Touch"

@tradcon3096

Жыл бұрын

I have a little experience swathing and from what I have seen you can overlap some but you need relatively even crop flow from both tables or it will plug even worse.

thats the only dam way them macdons will cut canola with shears on there the only macdon header that was ever built is the old 960 header that will blow every swather away in canola

@Northern_Farmer

Жыл бұрын

Yup

How many acres of canola you growing up north Mike??🤔🇨🇦

Mike aren't you afraid of that rotting when you cut it in the rain and the ground is wet and to get a chance for it to dry out

@Northern_Farmer

Жыл бұрын

It's good for the canola to have rain on it in this stage

Hey guys, can someone explain to me what the big difference between a combine header an a swather header is? Except for the big hole in middle of course 😅

@benjaminbauer4883

Жыл бұрын

Not much. Could be wrong though. I know my neighbour uses his combine front on his wondrower in dry years to cut hay and silage.

How much land is mike farming up north?

Is there a lot of seed shedding??

@tony98discovery

Жыл бұрын

I think there are quite a few dropped seeds

@kenhofer8063

Жыл бұрын

@@tony98discovery don’t get paid to think

Do you bale the straw for livestock

What function does the colored tape around the reel serve?

@fowletm1992

Жыл бұрын

So you can see in in the dark when it's parked up No real purpose to thr combine driver But there's been deaths over the years of people hitting combines parked on roads at night Every manufacturer has some sort of reflectors mcdon take it the most seriously, especially being a totally black

Mike, question what is the purpose of swathing verses combining thanks love your channel!!

@jpfarmer4206

Жыл бұрын

He will still combine, but with a special head called a pick-up head for the windrows. By cutting the crop he kills it which makes it dry out and combinable (the seeds will easily seperate from the plant in the combine process). Many will spray a crop with glyphosate (round-up) at the end stages of the crop's life cycle to kill it all completely, but that leaves behind chemical residue and can be more costly. It is much faster as well because those spayers take larger swaths and drive probably 2 to 3 times faster. It is a give and take, but the much healthier way is swathing.

@delbutler885

Жыл бұрын

The swather kills the crop and forces it to dry quicker.

@robertconreux8079

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info great of you both to reply not being a farmer and all!

@tmlf1239

Жыл бұрын

A lot of guys use diquat around here. But you have to wait a long time before you can spray diquat (100% color change on the seeds really) as it locks in the green seeds to a degree. Glyphosate is so slow too. You spray it about when you'd normally swath, along with some Heat, and then it slowly kills the plant over the next couple of weeks (can't use glyphosate by itself on glyphosate-tolerant canola). All in all swathing is consistently 2 to 3 weeks faster for combining in our short harvest season and I suspect the same would be true up where he was swathing.