World's Biggest Swather Makes Huge 75 Ft Pass

World's Biggest Swather Makes Huge 75 Ft Pass SWATHERS Swathers 8-4-28 Bill Dearborn probably operates the biggest swather in the world. He cuts a whopping 75-ft. swath in one pass. The Eatonia, Sask. farmer says his machine builds a windrow in the center that his Deere 8820 combine can easily handle. Putting that much straw through any combine is enough to choke even the biggest machine. But the swather lays a type of windrow that a combine can easily handle at 4¢ miles per hour, claim the builders of the swather, Glen and Gregory Honey, Bracken, Sask. Building the giant swather wasn't a new experience for them. Three years ago, the brothers built a 67-ft. swather for use on their farm. Two big 4-wheel-drive tractors have also been built in their farm shop. More recently, the brothers designed a special lightweight crane for erecting steel grain bins. With the experience gained with their own swather, plus adding several changes to make the unit even better, they ventured into manufacturing. Two models of the swather will be built. One model will be a 42-ft. tractor-mounted unit and the other will be a 63-ft. self-propelled machine. Both models will make use of a common 21-ft. table. The tractor-mounted unit will have one table mounted in front and the other on the side. The self-propelled model will have one table in front and one on each side. The cut crop is all fed onto the windrow made by the center table. Each cutting unit has individual height and reel controls. Being able to cut higher with the outside tables in a heavy stand has several advantages, Glen claims. The most important one is that less straw has to be fed into the machine. "We have picked up a 30-bu. crop at 4¢ miles per hour with no loss over the back," he says. "In fact, with our big swather, we have saved the cost of one combine in our operation." The two stubble heights across the field also help trap and hold more snow. Since two-thirds of the crop is cut high, most of the straw stays where the crop grew. You don't have to worry about getting all the straw spread back over the full width of cut. The hydraulic system swings the tables back so the unit is less than 25 ft. wide for transport. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Glen & Gregory Honey, Box 82, Bracken, Sask. SON OGO (ph 306 293-2955). Reprinted courtesy Grainews, Winnipeg, Canada.

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