New Holland H8040 Self propelled Windrower

A swather (North America), or windrower (Australia and rest of world), is a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

implement that cuts

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

or small grain

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...

s and forms them into a

windrow A windrow is a row of cut (mown) hay or small grain crop. It is allowed to dry before being baled, combined, or rolled. For hay, the windrow is often formed by a hay rake, which rakes hay that has been cut by a mowing machine or by scythe into ...

for drying. Razorbar closeup

They may be self-propelled with an

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

, or drawn by a

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

and power take-off powered. A swather uses a reciprocating sickle bar or rotating discs to sever the crop stems. The reel helps cut crop fall neatly onto a canvas or auger conveyor which deposits it into a windrow with stems aligned and supported above the ground by the stubble. A swather does the same task for hay crops as hand scything, cradling and swathing, or

mowing A mower is a person or machine that cuts (mows) grass or other plants that grow on the ground. Usually mowing is distinguished from reaping, which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for harvesting grain crops, e.g. with reape ...

and raking. Horizontal rollers behind the cutters may be used to crimp or condition the stems of hay crops to decrease drying time. For grains, as combines replaced

threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, thre ...

s, the swather introduced an optional step in the harvesting process to provide for the drying time that binding formerly afforded. Swathing is still more common in the northern United States and Canada than regions with longer growing seasons where standing grain crops can be harvested directly by combines. Some modern crop varieties capable of rapid maturity have reduced the need for swathing grains even in the north. As well as accelerating drying of the ripe grain, windrowing the whole of the growing crop provides for a consistent ripening and dehydration of stalk and green weeds to assist in effective post threshing winnowing and separation of the grain and other material. Alternatively, chemical desiccation of weedy or irregularly ripe standing crops with

glyphosate Glyphosate (IUPAC name: ''N''-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshik ...

, paraquat or diquat has been used to enable direct combining. A swather is the mascot of sports teams at Hesston High School in

Hesston, Kansas Hesston is a city in Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,505. Large manufacturing facilities for AGCO (farm equipment) and Excel Industries (lawn mowers) are located in Hesston. It ...

. Hesston is home to

AGCO Corporation AGCO Corporation is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1990 and with its headquarters in Duluth, Georgia, United States. AGCO designs, produces and sells tractors, combines, foragers, hay tools, self-propelled sprayers ...

swather and combine harvester manufacturing plants.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Swathers Agricultural machinery

See also

References

External links