Combines harvesting sunflowers

Hi, Kelly, You will not be satisfied with the bat reel. It will get the heads in the center and cause disaster. Use an all crop head (53 series). We use an 853 on and 8820. You would want a 653. Make a trip to Minot,ND and ask the JD or Case dealers for help.

Thanks for the info Rick. North Dakota is a long

Kelly, We had a contractor with a CTS harvest our sunflowers last year. The only alteration he made to the stantard bat reel front was to fit trays to the cutter bar and took off the bat reel. The trays would be available from your nearest dealer.As far as settings I will ask him next time I am talking to him although a different machine to yours might give you an idea of where to start. Regards Markus..

A rowcrop head works OK but limits the ground speed just a bit. lueke (sp.IJ) makes sunflower pans to go on grain heads. A fairly inexpensive option to put on although I would not reccommend putting them on and taking them off every year. I set up an older header and just leave them on. They work good and speed is practically unlimited. If you need more info on the grain pans I can find an address and phone number for them. They are made in North Dakota.

We used milo guards on a McDon and could out cut any row head.

Am currently using a rowcrop(6-30) on R52. Works o-kay, but cannot run combine at full capacity all the time. Will use it on milo next year. Question to Silver Bullet and Hop-a-long, How well do the pans work on terraced ground and steep slopes. Have 320 flex that I retired this year and rather than sell it, maybe get lueke (IJ) kit.

It has been about 7 years since I ran a McDon, but the biggest advantage that I remember is that the reel could be moved back so that the crop was laid on to the canves and removed from the sickle. The Problem that I have fought every since then (because I can't convence my boss to try a canves head) is that if you could move the reel back far enough that it would collide with the auger. I beleive that is why milo guards worked on a McDon and not sure if they would work on an auger head. Just my .02

Terraces and slopes are not much of a problem. I use a 24' head and go over terraces. Occasionaly one side will dip a little deep but just keep moving and the incoming stalks push those tall stalks on into the header. Might lose a few over the out end if cutting in too deep and the stalk falls to the side instead of back. But that isn't really much of a concern. On slopes I don't see much difference than on level ground. Also, I don't run a reel on mine and I see no need to. It works best to just run deep enough to get the heads so there is less stalk chewed up to clean out of the seeds.

I started out cutting sunflowers with a 30' Macdon and a set of pans I built that are similar to the lueke set up(the Macdon needs an extra bend and a bigger spacer where it attaches to the header). I ran a beater made out of 16" round tubing with 4 spikes per row. Some people claim that you don't need a reel or beater which is true about 90% of the time, but its nice to have something there that you can keep things moving if you hit a patch of weeds. The set up worked good except you could lose some out the front if you had to cut really low. The next year I decided that a row crop head would be better yet. I bought two six row headers and built a 12 row frame with a stainless floor made to fit my R62. About $10,000 and untold hours later I had a really nice header. It doesn't do as good a job as the $2000 pans. It's heavey, is very high maintenance, and you have to cut too much extra stalk because the knife is at the bottom of the row unit. The only place that it has an advantage is picking up sunflowers that are flat on the ground. I would recommend that you get a set of pans for the header you have. Works good and costs less.

There is a link to lucke Manfacturing makers of sunflower harvesting attachments on this site simply go to attachments on the left hand side and scroll to the bottom and click