Direct seeders find ways to cut the costs of dealing with flax residue. With the right production system and equipment some farm managers have been able to manage their flax straw the same as their cereal residue successfully!
Traditionally flax straw has been bunched and burned because the straw won't break down fast enough for any field operations the following spring. Occasionally conditions can be just right, and the residue can be burnt in the windrows left behind the combine. But normally the residue in these windrows has to be bunched first. Some direct seeders are bunching this residue with a baler because they find that any type of a straw pusher pushes up small mounds of dirt beneath each pile of straw. The most popular method of bunching the residue is with a harrow but this usually takes 2 to 3 passes to do an adequate job especially for those seeding with low residue clearance equipment.
Laurie Hayes with the Conservation Learning Center (CLC) tried chopping and spreading some of their flax straw last year. She was quite happy with the way seeding operations performed this spring into this residue. The flax had yielded 29 bu/ac, which indicates plenty of residue to deal with. (The CLC is a research and demonstration farm about 10 minutes south of PA.)
Last year John Deere supplied a 9610 combine equipped with their fine cut chopper to do the harvesting at the farm. John Deere has 2 speed options on their choppers and this chopper was running at the fast speed. They also have two different options for blades and this chopper had paddle type blades for extra spreading. The fine cut chopper has a heavier rotor and more blades than the standard chopper. After preharvesting with a liter/ac of Roundup the flax had been swathed with a 30-ft. swather.
SSCA has had demonstration plots at the CLC for 4 years now. This year we seeded these Do's & Don'ts of Direct Seeding plots with a 12 ft. Conservapak plot seeder set up on 12 in. row spacing. The barley plots were seeded into the chopped and spread flax straw and we experienced no problems. The Center just purchased a 9-in. spaced Flexi-coil 5000 air drill equipped with Stealth sideband openers. They also were very happy with the seeding job made with this machine into the flax residue.
Wayne and Rollice Gronvold direct seed northeast of Tisdale. They have been seeding into chopped and spread flax straw for several years and are very happy with the results. Rollice says, "I spend less seeding than others do gathering and burning their flax straw!"
The Gronvolds straight cut their flax with a New Holland TR equipped with a 30-ft. header and a Redekop chopper which also spreads the chaff. When the combine leaves the field it may not look real pretty but it is ready for the seeding operation. To make this system work they say there are a few things that are important. One of these is to preharvest the flax. Another is to cut as high as they can to a maximum of 12-in. and still get all the grain and make the combine perform. This leaves less loose residue to put through their airdrill. Thirdly they combine on an angle so that they will be seeding across any residue rows. One of the places where they have run into the greatest problem is in the sprayer tracks and they are building a set of crop dividers to reduce this source of long straw.
They seed with a Concord air drill with shanks 12-in. apart set up in 3 rows. Their opener is a simple 6-in. cutoff shovel. They use all dry fertilizer placed in this 6-in. seed row. They feel confident handling the residue from a 30 bu/ac flax crop with the system and experience they have now. When questioned about how a 10-in. spaced machine might perform they suggest that a 5 row machine probably should handle the same amount of residue that their machine handles.
Being Concord owners has already helped them overcome the hurdle of a perfectly smooth field finish. Their seeded flax stubble does have some extra lumps of residue and dirt scattered across it but they have a system that can handle this kind of field finish. Besides the reduced costs of getting rid of the flax straw they also see a moisture conservation benefit for those dry springs.
Based on these experiences you may want to try chopping and spreading a few acres of your flax residue this year.