Bean Harvest Lineup

what type of beans are you harvesting there and what type of harvest gear is being used ? fordhook looking the goods there with a couple of yellow terras on the job 👍
Paul

It is a yellow colored bean named Canario. Harvester is a C.B. Hays 3 cylinder Bertha model. Harvester powered by 6.354 Perkins engine.

Judging from your name you are a lima bean grower

How about some pictures of big bertha?

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We used to send lima beans to Maffei Seed Co. in Newman, Ca.
Still grow limas and have grown Fordhook Lima Seed for Patterson Frozen Foods.

What sort of equipment do you use to put the beans into windrows for the harvester to shell? A sickle bar arrangement I'm thinking? It looks like the ground is tilled between the windrows as well - does that have anything to do with the harvesting or is it just to get ahead while the harvesting is under way? Very interesting!

Cheers,
Neil.

We use a rod cutter built by Pickett Equipment in Burley, Idaho.
Cutter uses a 1 inch square counter rotating rod to lift the bean plants from the soil, then gently lifts them with a tine pickup onto a draper belt to form the windrows.
That gives the soil the tilled look.

Most interesting - I took a look on the Pickett website and I now know more about bean harvesting that I ever had a use for : ) I wonder if I can use one in my raised beds lol!

Regarding the D4 and D6, do you use them rather than rubber tyres for traction, to avoid compaction, or that's just what you have? What other crops do you rotate beans with? (Apologies for twenty questions - just curious about the operation)
Cheers,
Neil.

Caterpillars do all the tillage work. John Deere wheel tractors for planting, cultivating and spraying.
Just moved up to a John Deere 8420T rubber belted tractor with GPS (satellite) guidance.
Caterpillars were the norm in California, but the big wheel and belted tractors have taken over.
Other crops include wheat, corn and walnuts.


P.S. Wrote this reply on Ed RD7's computer. fordhook . . .