This may be a tad late for your problem and you may already know, BUT, When we had a short soybean crop, it broke my heart to see the whole plants get cut and then lie on the knife only to fall off on the ground. I lowered the reel until I trimmed the p_u fingers too. Then I bought 6" wide Round Baler belting and attached it to the bats so that the belt edge extends 2" beyond the p_u fingers. I used plastic cable ties to hold the belting to the fingers so it doesn't flap, and now the belting sweeps the knife. I put two sections of belt in each bank of reel bats, staggering them so that they feed evenly. Works pretty well. hope this helps. Dave