Straw Harvest
by Stefanie Hasert

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With the harvesting of wheat, comes much straw. Straw can be big business for many farms. It is used for the bedding of animals, to stop erosion and to protect tender seeds before they germinate. This month's mini movie features the harvesting of wheat with ERTL's new John Deere 7720 Turbo. This is a very nice 1/64 replica and a true tribute to one of John Deere's best known combines. There are also some interesting customs in this video from J&S Farm Toys and Gordy Shultz. You will see a New Holland 1069 automatic bale wagon cruise by with a load of straw and Gordy Shultz's 1/64 big baler follow the combine with a bale accumulator.

In many places, straw is simply chopped up by the combine and thrown back onto the field as residue. However, straw can be a profitable crop. In many cases, it can bring even more money than the wheat. This month we have a special bonus video from Young Family Farm in Herndon, Kentucky as they harvest their wheat and bale their straw crop . The Youngs big bale their straw to be sold and processed into straw mats that are seen on construction sites for the purpose of protecting newly seeded grass.

The Youngs use two John Deere 9650 combines and a 9610 with 25 foot John Deere 925 headers to harvest the wheat. The John Deere 925 heads are a good fit for the farm because the combines can travel down the road with the headers attached and leave a perfect sized wind row of straw for the baler. The farm uses two Heston 4900 big balers pulled by a John Deere 8100 and 8110 tractors to gather up the straw. If you have never been able to see a big baler in person, this video gives you a great chance to see the big machines in live action.

We hope that you will enjoy this inside peek at straw baling. It is great to see how the toys we collect relate to the real farming processes in the fields. Seeing the real thing is very helpful in building a realistic display.

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