Chaff Spreader Doubles As Straw Saver

Chaff Spreader Doubles As Straw Saver COMBINES Chaff Savers 22-5-25 "It lets us put straw in a windrow for baling and spread chaff at the same time," says Lorne Glanville about the chaff spreader/ straw saver that he and his brother Ken and nephew Dean built for their 1979 Deere 7720 combine. The design lets them either place the straw in a windrow or spread it out. The combine was originally equipped with a straw chopper but not a chaff spreader. Chaff dropped into a windrow behind the combine which resulted in cold, wet soil under the windrow that delayed planting. Glanville's home-built chaff spreader consists of an aluminum pan that collects chaff coming off the sieves and feeds it to a pair of home-built spinners. A curved steel deflector bolts on behind the spinners to deflect straw coming off the walkers into a windrow. By unbolting the deflector, Glanville can still use the original straw chopper to chop soybean straw and spread it on the field. The aluminum chaff-catching pan attaches to the combine with a spring-loaded clip. The spinners are driven by a separate hydraulic pump that's powered by the primary countershaft. The spinners are attached by two bolts to the rear axle, and the deflector attaches with two bolts. "We use the chaff spreader for all our crops, whether we're saving straw or not. The nice thing is that we don't have to re-move the spinners whenever we want to place the straw in a windrow," says Glanville. "We built it three years ago and spent about $900. The spinners are mounted farther back than the spinners on most conventional chaff spreaders, allowing most of the corn stalk residue that comes off the walkers to fall onto them when the deflector is removed." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lorne Glanville, RR 4, Walton, Ontario, Canada N0K 1Z0 (ph 519 527-1943).

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