This weekend saw the No 6 Binder tie it's first sheaf of maize (corn) for many years, this machine was bought at The Reichert sale in Ontario over eight years ago now.
Maize is now becoming a crop grown more readily in this part of the country for use as an energy crop in the anerobic digesters for feeding energy back into the National electricity grid.
The Casterton Working Weekend committee planted a bit of maize in the spring on their site, the ground being very stony from a redundant quarry, this together with the very dry summer we had was not good conditions for a very good crop, a lot of it was very short which fell below the band and out of the sheaf, the low areas of the field where there had been more moisture the height was around five feet, so very short sheaves.
There was also a later PTO driven Case binder there, it's knotter is higher than the M-H and could not tie and hold a sheaf together which caused a lot of blockages, so the M-H ended up cutting the entire piece on Sunday.
 

It was quite an experience for all of us and visitors alike who had never seen a maize binder let alone one working, we believe the two machines together in the field this weekend are the only two known examples in the UK, unless someone informs us differently.

Malcolm.




 

Well done Malcolm and co-rider.  A wonderful combination of implement and tractor.

A rare sight in this country - maybe the first??

John

It's amazing how global these events are becoming, both the Case and Massey-Harris binding teams appreciated some very useful advise in setting up and operating the binders in very difficult conditions from one visitor a "Massey Collector" from across the pond.
I got a very pleasant surprise when he introduced himself to me after listening to the sweet sound of the styled 25.

Does anyone recognise the man behind the binder even though he was a long way from home I don't think he was lost???

Malcolm.

Malcolm What a rare sight in this country. It looks as though the weather was great as well. I was going to go along on the Sunday but my vehicle let me down. If I remember correctly wasn't that Case binder there working some years ago? I think they were carting the shelves to a 'Corn Chopper' and blowing it into a solo. Alan

Sorry to hear you had vehicle problems and could not get to Casterton Alan.

Yes your right about the Case binder  eight or nine years ago, I was due to be there with the M-H binder then, but that was the time my mother passed away and did not get to the event, so had to wait for it to come around again to get to see if it would tie.

On another note we experienced difficulties with varying row widths, if I drove so the maize was feeding centre of the elevator the inside wheel of the binder was running down the next row of standing crop, with them being fixed wheels and non adjustable I had to drive to one side of the elevator and remove the swath stick to keep the wheel just off the crop. The Case binder had a much narrower wheel width and dealt with the narrow rows better than the Massey, but it struggled with the short crop.

We measured the row widths and they varied from 18 through 20, 22 and 24 inches, in this day and age of precision drills and GPS which planted this maize  I would of expected there to be very little variation on row widths.

Our US visitor assured us the row widths of the time would of been 36 inches, this was confirmed by two planters on show at the event, one Case and the other John Deere, both measured 36 inches between the rows.

The sheaves were carted from the field to a demonstration area where two ensilage choppers were belted up, one International Harvester and the other was an Eagle.

Malcolm.

What a nice showing!! It is great to see the Massey’s working.  There is still hope for me and my 6A!!  We have the same problem here with the narrow rows. I have volunteered my planter if our local club ever wants to do it correctly!

I still need to find a seat bracket for mine and I believe it would be ready to go.  . I don’t believe we would have the height problem you had, if anything it might be toooo tall!

Thanks for sharing!!

Gary

Malcolm Only one thing for it next year at Casterton. Plant the maize with a M-H corn planter then the rows will be the correct width. Alan

I am surprised non of our US viewers recognised Jim Esbenshade from Oklahoma who visited the Casterton Working Weekend here in south Lincolnshire, he was the guy wearing a cap and advising us on the binder in this photo.

Malcolm.

Malcolm,

Had to go down a bit to find a Reply button... I thought that was Jim in the picture but the Cane in his left hand threw me off as I didn't remember Jim ever using a Cane..

If it works here is a link to your Videos, Love the tune of the M-H 25...

Joe


    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjOYgaJavlg




    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6GfhRqYD0c

Many thanks Joe for working wonders with the video's.

The styled 25 ran well both days, Sunday it ran from 10.00am in the morning until the plot was finished around 3.00pm, used a quarter of a tank of TVO (kerosene) during the entire weekend, the exhaust sound and smell was perfect in the autumn sunshine.

Jim was in his element amongst a field of corn!!

Malcolm.