Finish your coffee and go back and read her's again. She said storing grain ON the stalk is not practical and you responded by saying not really and telling how you store it OFF the stalk.

That is nothing at all like what she referred to about storing loose it on the stalk

I don't know what the problem is here. Wanda was inferring I was hanging it on the stock. Best leave the coffee along.

Wade


Originally Posted by 1shotwade View Post
Not really! i do it every year,year after year. I have some grain That is 12 years old.
What we do is sack the grain and tie it of on a terr pole in the barn. It stays dry,keeps well and nothing gets in it. The birds could land on it but they don't ever get into it.

Wade

If you have to tie grain on the stalk to the rafters. I would look for another option.

She "inferred" that because storing on the stalk is what she was talking about when you replied saying "I do it"

She said:
To which you replied:
See the problem now?

I threshed my green beans with a paint mixer and 5 gallon bucket. I would whip them up real good and then winnow them with an industrial fan. I set up two plastic tubs. The clean beans fell in the first tub. The hulls with beans fell in the second. The empty bean hulls blew away.

I've been thinking of building a small scale thresher. I just need time. I envision a curved piece of perforated metal. And an atv rim and tire on a shaft for the cylinder. If that gave good results i would move on to seives and straw walkers.

I have a Seymour scythe, complete with s-n-a-t-h-s (spellcheck won't let me use this word….). It appears to be unused and I have no use for it. Would trade for a good clean crosscut saw (Simonds/Atkins/Disston).

Is this the right place to put a trade notice?

I think I have an old 2 man saw blade in the basement....it isn't clean though.

Post a pic of it if you can. I am a saw filer and am always looking for quality saws. Admittedly, I know nothing about scythes, but the one I have has had very little if any use. I think the previous owner used it as some kind of objet d'art. Anyway, there's probably plenty of good crosscut saws in Idaho, in fact, more saws than scythes. This is what I'm looking for. Clean steel, no missing teeth, etc.:

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/...r/395e417e.jpg
http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/...pseepciad5.jpg

Mine is rusty, I think. I can take a pic.

I have preached this before, and here I go again: If you think outside the box for a minute, instead of beating the grain heads with something--flail, beater and concave bars, wire brushes in a bucket---why not reverse your thinking and blow the grain against someting solid??? If you cut the grain heads only in the field, then take them into the barn and process them on a high velocity blower, you've got your grain threshed, and the chaff blown on out the end while the grain falls out into your storage container.

This concept came from the time I helped out on a blown-in insulation rig during a house remodeling project. The compressed bag of insulation went into the hopper, was picked up by a high speed blower--and by the time it went through the ridged hose at that speed it came out light and fluffy at the other end just right to be used as insulation.

So my fertile brain got to thinking: why not do grain that way? Put a fan on the front of a mounted cutter bar, cut just the grain heads and blow(or suck) them into a sack or bag...this wouldn't be a whole lot different than a leaf collector. Take the bag of heads to your food processing center, then run them through a wind-driven thresher?

I really think a set of simple machinery like this would revolutionize the homesteading movement. To have your own home grown grains and livestock feed--and to be able to process and store it without hard muscle work or tinkering around with old worn out machinery would be a godsend....

Just another thought. Someone may yet get the concept if I mention it long enough.

geo

That's a neat idea! Have you done any experimenting with it?

http://www.shelbourne.com/3/products...tripper-header

You don't necessarily need to cut anything.

Wish I could find someone to sharpen my 2 2 man saws. I likely wont ever use them again, but I like having everything I own up to snuff as much as possible. I do know of a sharpening place, but they use BIG machines to do their work. I use them on my sickle mower sickles

No experimentation, though I did once build a slotted thresher box to be used with a rubber flail--wore me out. This idea has just been rattling around in my brain for a long time....Now, if I were younger and able to weld, perhaps....

Go for it.

geo

This is the 3rd or 4th time just in the last week or so that I've read this "dissication" business applied to wheat farming. Not around here. Farmer Dale is right-no glyphosate is used in wheat production at all in our area, either. By all means, raise wheat and other grains if you want to, but do it for the right reasons; not because of some inaccurate journalism.

I've used both American and Austrian scythes. The Americans are great if you want a serious workout. With an Austrian, I can scythe for quite a long time, very efficiently, without breaking a sweat. I bought my Austrian scythe from Alexander Vido. He's a really nice guy, knows scythes well, has good equipment, and will be happy to tell you how to use it.

Botan Anderson is another "scythe guru," also super nice. Here's a link to his page on fixing a grain cradle for an Austrian scythe: http://onescytherevolution.com/1/pos...an-scythe.html . Botan sells scythes and scything equipment as well.

I'd far rather use a scythe than a weed wacker or some such thing to harvest grain. I had a BCS walk-behind sickle bar mower that about shook me to death. Give me a nice, quiet, relaxing scythe every time.

I grow a little wheat in 5 X 120 foot beds. We have had some success using a wheel barrow with a frame that has 1/4" hardware cloth and another frame about 30" tall to
keep the looser wheat from flying away before it hits the hardware cloth.

I've tried putting it into squirel cage fans, some success.

We've tried high pressure blowers and that worked well, except the fan blades hit the grain so hard and fast that it shattered the wheat. Perhaps a veriable speed motor
would help.
No spell check on this?

We are in the adirondacks of ny growing on loamy sand and can sow spring wheat early.
This year we are growing Glenn variety, but next year I will try Red Fife which was grown
100 years ago. available from the Organic Grower part of Fedco seeds. We are amending the soil according to www.soilminerals.com. Ratios of P:Zn:Cu are important
as Cu is necessary in helping prevent wheat scab.

We Early Riser corn, about 1/3 acre. and love it. great for the chickens in the winter.
makes great polenta

Dave Rogers

http://roundup.ca/_uploads/documents...ng%20Guide.pdf

Back to the original question: the desire to produce and harvest one's own grain--so as to assure that no chemicals are used in the process.....I am neither a Roundup supporter or detractor, but the above sheet, by Monsanto, does show that glyphosate can be--and quite possibly is, used on pulse crops prior to harvest. How much is anybody's guess and of course will depend upon locale, but no doubt Roundup gets mixed into the grain crop each and every harvest these days.

http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plan...php#preharvest

This article, by the University of Saskatchewan suggests that glyphosate can be used to speed up the grain harvest, mainly by causing more uniform drydown of the grain in the stalk, thus eliminating the swathing process...Whether that happens on my farm or yours, there is a chance in these days of BTO philosophy--get every penny, capture every seed--that the decision to spray or not to spray may be done by some computer app in an office miles away from the field and transmitted to the tractor cab by electronic link...and your crop, my crop, and the BTO crop all goes into the same national bin...So I can sympathize that the OP is looking at ways to harvest and store a personal, homestead crop.

To me, this process is one of the main limitations today to the advancement of practical homesteading--that is, the closed loop production of growing and having your food--especially grain(think bread and animal food) without buying inputs to produce the crop--or having to buy the crop in an outside, retail marketplace....Threshing that grain with Third World methods--scythe and flail--or relying on an obsolete Massey Harris combine--just won't cut it these days(pun mine) We should start by looking outside the box, and I believe air handling is the answer...

Off my soapbox...

geo

Lay down a canvas say about 10' by 12' and then lay down a 4' by 4' square of 1/2" hardware screen in the center of your canvas. The screen will have a curve to it from coming off a roll. Put the concave side down so the screen forms an arch over your canvas. Throw your grain down on the screen and shuffle your feet on it. I use my heavy work boots. The screen will try to spring back up after you've walked on it and the seeds will fall through and leave the straw on top. You will still have to winnow the grain like usual, but the threshing should go much faster.

I've often thought one of those Flowtron-type shredders, a big barrel with a weed-wacker line doing the work, using a very small screen would work nicely. Haven't tried it, but it seems like it would work pretty well.

Oh, and for goodness sake, don't get a scythe off of Amazon. I've seen those things. They're heavy, and they don't fit right. The angles are wrong for efficient and comfortable scything.

there is what is called naked or hull-les oats, and for animals the hulled oats are used all the time, I have planted them in the past, and they yielded about the same as hulled oats for me,

winter rye will take over, and will come up year after year nearly impossible to get rid of, if you do plant keep it in one area, rye is usually easy to grow, rye can also be pastured in the fall and spring if one does not get to heavy on it, the yield is not effect that much, if the animals re removed fairly early.

be careful on the wheat to animals the grain can cause much intestinal problems as it sticks together in the gut, no more than 10% in the ration,

I would look in to a sickle mower if possible if that is the way one wants to harvest,

I made a grass seed striper, and in reality it is not bad for harvesting small grains,

basically a bar with string trimmer line and a box on the back side, it take the heads and grain and strips it off the stocks, and kicks in to the box on the back,

one would still need to thresh it some (my thought was two soft tires pushed up against each other rotating at slightly driftnet speeds) and Drop it between them, if one had a slab of concrete one could mostly likely just roll over it with some heaver tired equipment and then wino it , even a low tractor and its tires,

the either a grain cleaner or winnow it in the wind,

I think one could built a smaller unit like mine a say 3 feet wide for use behind a lawn tractor,
picture of how it works,
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/ass...3/methods1.gif
here is basically a hand held version
http://www.prairiehabitats.com/Harvester_Hand_Held.html#
here is a hand push version
https://brucemackay54.files.wordpres...ss-grabber.jpg

From a friend of mine,who's done this but isn't a member:
First of all, I would suggest the person go to www.scythesupply.com
Instead of trying to figure out all this on her own, she can talk to the
experts there and they can get her set up with the right blade and a custom
made snath fit to her body measurements. I have several blades and I like
the one from Scythe Supply best. They also have lots of educational
information including instructional videos and DVD's which are very helpful.
It is an investment in the blade, the snath and the sharpening equipment, so
you don't want to waste your money.

Oats, Quinoa, Spelt are the only grains that the human body can utilise effectively. We are made for a paleo diet and grains cause our bodies a lot of stress when digesting; called auto-immune response.
Farm animals/grazers are built for grains with their multiple stomachs, cud chewing, and specific enzymes in their make-up.
Find a good source of Quinoa flour (pronounced Keenwa) and learn to bake with that for bread and such...
Don't mean to be authoritative, just relating what I've read about this... :)

We grow a lot of grains, of a lot of types, but don't harvest it per say. Rather we graze it. It is part of our pasture mix. Our livestock harvest it and then we harvest them. It doesn't put bread on the table but it does put meat on the plate.

-Walter

Yes, Gene Logsdon book ! But i wanted to say that I seem to see scythes in yard sales a lot - I have 4 or 5, but 1 is for brush .

I got my first scythe at an auction. It was an American type and very heavy. I use it for brush and the Austrian one for grass.

Found a nice scythe at a local antique store. It's dull, but works. The blade will need to be peened...

The Scythe Book by Tresemer is invaluable for learning the scythe and has a drawing of what you are trying to accomplish with peening. Quality custom snaths(sized to you) and Austrian style blades can be had for very reasonable cost (for a quality tool) from Marugg. Regarding peening, I have found it to be easier to use an anvil type dinglestock and crosspeen hammer. It takes a few strokes to get the technique, but you direct the blow placement with the crosspeen on the hammer rather than trying to keep the blade in position on a fuller type dinglestock. Grains can be harvested very efficiently with a sharp scythe. An acre can be mowed easily in an afternoon once technique is polished. The American style blade will only tire and frustrate due to its weight. It has its place, however, like mowing weeds or hay where much coarser material is encountered. Stop and sharpen frequently with a wet whetstone. A sharp scythe is a joy to use.

This is not really true. This system is made for digesting cellulose (grasses) and is easily overwhelmed by the high energy density of grains. That is why animals not accustomed to grain can rapidly bloat or sicken on a high-grain ration.

Feeding grain to ruminant livestock is simply something that humans do to increase fat content/marbling and speed finishing. They were never meant to eat it in large quantities - what opportunities would they have to do so in the wild?


Back on the glyphosate topic, there is an article in the latest agri-whatever (not in front of me at the minute) magazine from the government warning idiots not to use it as a dessicant. Apparently people have indeed been trying to dessicate wheat with it - who knew. Everyone knows it makes a poor dessicant, but I guess they are caught up in the lure of it being cheap and quicker than swathing/waiting for the crop to dry standing. I'm a firm believer that swathing is the best way to dry down a crop but most of the big boys would rather straight cut.

I will try to scan the article and post it up here.

I straight cut because if it rains, the quality drops far faster swathed, than standing waving in the wind.

I just wait though, I don't spray it. No big deal.

It's a bit more complicated. Out on pasture or in the wild the ruminants and other grazers do eat grain. But they eat it in small quantities mixed in with other forages. In small quantities it's good for them. In high quantities is where they have troubles.

Moderation in all things.

-Walter

Around here, the ungulates do not limit themselves at all, unfortunately, and thrive on grains. Thanks to grain agriculture, the wild game population has exploded since settlement. Even the moose have taken to eating canola in particular, forgoing browse entirely at certain times of the year, something no one saw coming.

One example is me losing 20 acres of oats, (about 2000 bushels worth) in about a week to herd of elk. Or when I dumped 60 bushels of tough wheat in a pile at the edge of the woods and set up my game camera. The night after I removed my game camera, the elk found it, and it was completely GONE in one night. I mean it was LICKED CLEAN!!!

So there is a theory that wild animals do not overeat on grain. I agree, they seem to know when it is enough, however, that is not to say they do not absolutely HAMMER grain in huge quantities in a very short time. I had a bear that ate at least half a bushel of wheat a night from my bins a couple falls ago. The layer of fat on that bear, tells me the wheat was doing its job...

The interesting thing, is they have all the "grass", alfalfa, browse they could ever desire. Yet they single out the grains to eat. They will cross two miles of alfalfa, barely stopping to nibble, if grain is available at the end of the trail.

Just saying that grains are incredibly safe and healthy for livestock, and yes, you need to watch the quantities indeed.

I just wish I had known the elk were hitting that oats so hard. Besides being worth about 6 000 bucks, I am curious how many there were, and one or two for my freezer would have been fine by me! lol Expensive meat though.

It's just grass seed, so they would be filling up on it every time the grass seeds out. I've watched my sheep walk through a pasture just nipping off seed heads

I tried to peen an American blade once. A chunk broke off. I later found out that American blades are supposed to be sharpened by grinding, not peening like the Austrian-type blades.

Here is a totally different idea. See if you can get to know some local small grain farmers. Maybe find out if your herbicide fears are even valid. You may be surprised. farmers are like most people if you show some interest in what they do they are very eager to talk about it. Actually many would be flattered that you would like to b;uy some grain for food. Needless to say if you start beating them up about organic and raping mother nature you won't get far.

I have a scythe from a company called Scythe Supply in Maine. Have both a grass blade and ditch blade for it. People always poo poo my scythe, but I think they're the crazy ones. Lol. If used correctly, it takes less effort than a weed eater. And I prefer it on certain woody weeds like thistle and those wild daisy-looking things because those feel like I'm getting hit with rocks in the leg when I hit them with the gas powered trimmer. Important thing with the scythe is to make sure you have a good blade (mine are Austrian blue steel, from a company that has made them since 1580ish) and that the handle is scaled to your height.