Exploring Small Scale Grain Harvesting part 1

this short film looks at cutting wheat with a side and a grain cradle made from hazel stick and a length of copper pipe lowering this tree the film shows step-by-step how to assemble set up and adjust the cradle it examines the effects of maori style on getting a week before neatly in the windrow and the final section looks at gathering the curve weeds the cradle uses a length of chain out in place with a d' shackle the hazel stick is put in between the chain and pulled tight the top arm can be moved forwards and backwards by moving the position of the chain as it grips the snap the height can be adjusted by lengthening and lowering this string the angle of the arm can be altered by using a wedge on the lower grip this lower arm holds the bottom of the wheat stems in place the lower arm is made from six millimeter bar held in place by two Jubilee clips the function of a top arm is not just to go over cut wheat but also guide as it forced the brand I usually set this section of the arm level or slightly pointing towards the ground you I set our very acute hafting angle with a 65 centimeter thick blade there is five fingers difference between the tip and the beard end of the blade with the scythe and the mowing stance the top arm is set roughly to half the crop height furthermore the cradle arm is set to carry the wheat on angle so when you come to the end of the stroke the wheat falls dead on its own the distance between the cradle arm tip and blade tip can be altered by moving this dowel in and out lower the cradle arm the longer this needs to be and the higher the cradle arm the shorter it needs to be the position of this point can be altered by rotating this dough the screw is located on the top so it doesn't interfere with the cradle action so to recap the top arm is set roughly to half the crop height and positioned so it carries the wheat on an angle and also with the tip of the cradle arm roughly four to five inches from the tip of the blade and protruding about an half an inch to an inch beyond the back of the blade or rib then practice mowing altering the layer of the blade to find out if the tip is too close to you missing the cut weed or too far away from you and catching in the uncut weeds then you can make fine adjustments to the tip of the cradle arm as necessary with this cradle my mowing style which I'm always trying to improve is more of a straight cut as opposed to a 180 degree arc in open field mowing of grass you when finishing with a circular cut the wheat stems tend to fall in an uncontrolled manner here we see the difference is a circular grass mowing technique and a cereals mowing action which is more of a straight cut obviously you can only cut wheat when the foliage is dry if there's a lot of green in there it's best not to make the bundles too tight so the air can get in and dry it out cheese can be stoked in groups of four or six to dry and ripen for one to three weeks depending on the weather put some black netting on top to start wood pigeons landing on it if they are a problem it doesn't matter if the cheese get rained on from time to time as they soon dry out in the Sun and rent and wind however a period of prolonged wet weather over many days could be a problem in wetter areas is worthwhile making a hat for the cheese and the final thing to note is last year's hazel stick makes a tea for this year's harvest Cheers you

Channel: Stephen Simpson

Views: 117,651

Rating: 4.905724 out of 5

Keywords: cradle scythe, wheat harvest, grain cradle, scything wheat

Id: cF0kdhIcG7U

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 11 2013