Threshing at Smith Rocks Ranch

by Lynn R. Miller of Singing Horse Ranch

Mike McIntosh invited us to join them at a threshing reenactment at Smith Rocks Ranch. The schedule worked and I needed to find some additional photos for the book I am working on about grain binders, so Eric and I went to Terrebonne. The result was a lot of perfect pictures so we share a few with you in this issue. The equipment and horses demonstrated all belong to the McIntosh clan. Mike, Joanna, plus Jamsey, Jacob and their wives (and children) were joined by Clay and Brett. Threshing is a regular occurrence for the family so everyone knows their part to perfection. Jamsey had an accident and was wearing a neck brace, so all teamster jobs went to Jacob, Ashley and Sara. Jamsey was mechanicing and running the JD belt-drive tractor to power the Case thresher. Jacob ran the JD binder and the ladies drove the bundle rack team. Mike, Clay and Brett kept the thresher going smooth and at the right speed.

It was a cloudy day with intermittent light showers but not enough to threaten the picture-perfect dry wheat crop nor the equipment operations. The binder walked through the standing uniform wheat easily and the thresher did a superb job of cleaning the grain.

At this point I presume to quote myself. What follows is an excerpt for the coming book on grain binders.

How a Grain Binder Works

The grain binder is drawn (whether by equine or tractors) around the ripe or ripening grain field, beginning at the outer edges and working towards the center. Direction is determined by whether it is a right-handed or left-handed* implement design. The cutter knife and the corresponding canvas-drapered lower conveyor bed of the binder are adjustable for height, the ideal being a level which allows all grain heads are harvested with a suitable stalk length to tie into a bundle. This means enough length either side of string to allow that bundles will hold together until entering the threshing machine, and the twine positioned so that it is center of the weight of each bundle. (Frequently grain fields may have green weed growth at lower levels, setting the cut height above those improves the efficiency with which a thresher handles the crop, but it can result in too short of a stalk length which makes it difficult to keep bundles intact for transport and feeding into thresher.)

In most instances, if the grain, be it oat, barley, wheat or other grain, is completely dry before harvest, the cutting and binding process will shatter or knock off a significant portion of the grain heads. For this reason discriminating farmers are prone to cut the grain a tad bit green as this holds the grain heads on the stalks. Binding complete, the grain bundles are then gathered and stood on end, heads up, with a bundle or bundles capping the schock. These schocks are left in the field for a few days to complete curing, then the bundles are picked up and taken to the stationery thresher, or barn. (Side note: Binding and threshing recreations at old time farming events will frequently necessitate that both activities happen same day or within the weekend, which means the crop might be standing drier than optimal for yield.)

Back to the machine; the cutter bar, propelled by a wooden pitman arm, driven by a fly wheel powered by the large ground-drive wheel and gearing, cuts the crop and, in a perfect world, lays it back on the moving conveyor belt. But the world isn’t always perfect so a slatted, adjustable reel, also propelled by ground-drive chains, gently coaxes the crop backward on to the binder. The crop lays across the canvas draper or conveyor belt, grain heads to the rear, and moves sideways to the twin, opposing, elevating drapers which deliver, on the incline, the crop up and over the mechanism as twin, adjustable side paddles gather the crop end-ways and offer it to the twine binding mechanism. The weight of the oncoming crop pushes the material against a trip mechanism which sends a single stout curved cast needle up through and around the tightening bundle of grain stalks, threading a sisal twine around where it is grabbed by the swinging bill hook which then, twisting both ends of the twine together, ties them into a strong and elegant knot. Upon completion of the knot, the bundle is ‘ kicked’ into a waiting basket and the cycle repeats. On most binders the operator has a pedal which allows him to trip the bundle basket whenever and wherever he chooses (but usually with 5 + or – bundles to the drop). The savvy binder operator has the option of aligning the piles of bundles, in each row, with the piles in the adjacent row. This then makes it easier for the bundle wagon crew as they can load from both sides of the wagon at each stop.

Next, the bundles are either taken to a barn for storage and later threshing, or taken by bundle rack direct to a thresher set up in the field.

As was the case on this day, the fully mature wheat crop was bundled and delivered to the waiting thresher for ‘cleaning’ or separating. Bundles were pitched by three-tine fork direct into the conveyored mouth of the thresher. Once inside, the crop is shook back and forth, separating grain heads from stalks and weeds. The grain falls to the bottom of the thresher and is then augered and blown upwards and over the top to fall down the tube into waiting sacks or containers.

The A tractor might be 75 tears old but the thresher and binder are easily 100+ years old. Good maintenance and general care will have this equipment fit as a fiddle long after the industrial and cyber ages have fizzled away. The trick is to keep the skills alive. For this we need operator’s manuals and many, many families such as the McIntosh clan.