How to Cut Grain with a Swather

Curing time for grain crops can be shortened by cutting with a swather, although swathers are designed for mowing grass and legumes to make hay. Some farmers are getting more from their grain crop by cutting with a swather before combining, or by making hay with their grain crop.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Wrench set
• Hammer
• Grease gun and grease
• Oil

1. Remove your swather's conditioning (crimping) attachment before starting to cut grain to avoid shattering the heads of grain.
2. Grease and oil all moving parts on the swather and ensure the sickle bar is sharp and has all sections and guards in place.
3. Ease into the field of grain with the header down and sickle bar engaged. Keep your throttle at medium to high and your ground speed about medium. Don't push your equipment too hard or it will break down.
4. Encircle the field in a counter-clockwise direction if it is planted fence-row to fence-row, then turn the swather around and make another cut alongside the first, only going clockwise this time. This gives you room to turn the machinery around when you reach the perimeter of the field on subsequent back and forth cuts without ruining very much grain.
5. Continue to cut swaths the length of the field in a back and forth manner, lifting the header before turning at the end of each row. The grain your swather header pushes down while moving in one direction will be picked back up and swept into the header on the next pass.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep your ears open to any unusual noises as you are swathing. Stop the instant you hear an unusual noise and check your machine. You may have hit a rock or some hardware or broken something on your machine.
• Stop to grease and oil your machine at least after every four hours of operation.
• Always follow all safety precautions around farming equipment. Keep guards and shields in place. Don't wear loose clothing and never place any part of your body in the vicinity of any moving equipment.

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