Traditional pea harvesting

[near horse]

Ooops! Sorry Tim. I misunderstood – sometimes I can be a little dense:eek: No harm done (I hope).

[Andy Carson]

Thanks for all the opinions. I am not discounting the more standard “swath and dry” approach, but this bean knife seems interesting to me. I found a peanut knife (46 inches) that has an optional lifter attachment that would probably make a nice windrow. I bet I can pull one of these at a one inch depth…

[Tim Harrigan]

The peanut knife and the bean knife are probably quite similar. They are pulled almost parallel to the row so I would not expect much draft. One thing is that to prevent side-draft it would be best to run in pairs so 2 rows are pulled and combined at a time. That means you really should have a 2 row planter for consistent spacing to do a good job with the puller. I looked at that Sund harvester again and it looks like those peas were solid seeded and just pulled out of the ground. Dry beans pulled with a knife are planted in rows and I think peanuts are as well. Are you going to be planting with your row planter?

[Andy Carson]

The row vs solid planting was what I was thinking about, and mostly why I was investigating harvesting techniques. I had originally thought about planting the peas in rows and harvesting them with some “as-yet-to-be-defined” method. As the width to be cut is rather small (if planted in rows) I thought there would be some relatively efficient way to harvest the rows. I think the bean knife would work here. It does create sidedraft issues, as Tim points out, which could be addressed by using twin knives. Using twin knives means I have to use a twin planter. With the time and expense of buying parts for and making a twin no/min till planter and this knife harvester system, I could simply buy a small sickle bar mower. The mower also solves the issue of the horse stomping on the peas before cutting/pulling. The mower would also be useful for my pastures, and for a myriad of other tasks, where the bean knife system would sit 364 days of the year. If I have a mower, I think I would plant the peas solid with disc/broadcast/disc/roll. This is the path that I think I am attracted to now, but I’ll ruminate on it a bit.

[goodcompanion]

I don’t understand what these knives are being attached to. A forecart? Is a sicklebar mower one option and these knives a second one?

[sickle hocks]

I would also like to see what the knife cutter / windrower implement would look like on a horse scale…i googled some big industrial looking things. Is this something you’d have to make from scratch?

I’m interested in growing some of the heirloom variety dry beans on a very small but commercial scale. A lot of the varieties are quite upright but they still seem like they could be a nightmare with a sickle mower..?? Just raking them out is interesting. Are you thinking of loading and hauling to some kind of stationary thresher?

[Tim Harrigan]

The bean cutter knives would have to ride on a tool bar. If they cut 2 rows the knives would slide along the outside of the rows on an angle so as they went by they would progressively slice through the row and then be combined into a single windrow. A small mechanized thresher would handle an acre OK, I suppose you could even build a hand crank version that might be OK but that would be a lot of work for something you would want to start and finish pretty quickly.

I don’t know about the mower, I guess you could set it up with vine lifters and raise it up to keep it out of the dirt, but stones would still be a problem. And I don’t know Andy, the thought of a solid mat of cut peas that need to be picked up and threshed within a day or two saps my strength. One advantage of the knife cutter with rows is that you just cut what you can thresh

[Andy Carson]

I was considering using a sickle bar mower mostly because I thought it would be a “slam dunk” from the point of view of cutting the peas. If it is not (and it sounds like it is not) than perhaps making a different piece of equipment is justified. It sounds like the knife method would work, especially if the peas were planted in rows, but I can’t help feeling like I am reinventing the wheel. I am sure there must have been some “pre-mower” method that was useful. I found the rake method, but it’s hard to find someone who has seen this methods and can confirm that it was either common or effective. Where are out 150 year old DAP members?? 🙂

I am not sure that using a twin row harvester would definately require a twin planter. The peanut knives I found were 46 inches long, so would cut a 32.5 inch path at a 45 degree angle. If I have 20 inches between the knives (at the rear of an inverted “V”) that would cover rows as close as 20 inches or as wide as 85 inches. I plan on using 42 inches between rows, so I would have to be pretty far off with my seeding to not hit one row with each knife. If I do really screw up, I can just make another pass anyway…

As far as a thresher, I was thinking of some small stationary unit that would probably be powered by a gas engine. Ideally, it would be small enough that I can haul it to the field on a sled and I don’t have to haul the straw and chaff twice.

[Tim Harrigan]

You might want to look into diseases that are a problem with peas. I know many growers complain about more problems with white mold in beans and figure it is worse in denser stands because air movement and drying are less effective. Another advantage of rows is that you can cultivate for weed control.

[Andy Carson]

an interesting article, outlining several techniques for harvesting field peas, including a stubble rake. More food for thought… http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/objtwr/imported_assets/content/fcp/lp/fp/cp/bull4569.pdf

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