My husband and I have planted a 2 acre wheat field. Our intentions are great but now it's time to harvest and we're at a loss as to how to thresh the wheat after we've cut it. Don't really live in an area where you can rent or hire a combine to do the work so we need to do it by hand somehow. Does anyone have any Ideas on how we can thresh the wheat and dry it and do whatever needs to be done. We've thought of just rubbing the wheat heads between our hands and get the wheat that way....too tedious! Any Ideas??? Please..time is running out for us probably by the end of this week. E-mail me. Thanks. Michelle

-- Michelle Williams (bigwillsmom@hotmail.com), May 30, 2000

Answers

Michelle, an old way of doing it is to stand a board on edge, flop a big handful of wheat over it so the heads are barely on the other side, and start whapping on it with a stick.

It should pretty well be dry before you harvest it. And you don't have to take it off the stems right away. You can store it as shocks and then you wouldn't need to beat the grain out until you were ready to use it. If you're planning on using it for livestock feed, you could feed the whole stem to most types of animals. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 30, 2000.

I raised a small patch of rye to grain stage as an experiment one year. I made small shocks then when it was very dry stuck the head end of the shock into a barrel and whacked it back and forth against the side of the barrel. Of course I didnt have any 2 acres either. You've got a job. Good luck.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), May 30, 2000.

Remember first that "Where there is a will, there is a way." Now since I am from the "Wheat State" of Kansas, let me say that you are going to have to have a strong will to harvest that much wheat by hand and then thresh it out. You have 87,120 square feet of wheat, and when you consider how many heads there will be per square foot--- Once you are done you will understand why the invention of the mechanical reaper was hailed as such a great invention. As was pointed out, the crop can be cut somewhat premature, tied into bundles that are then built into shocks. In the drier areas of the country the grain can be stored quite a while in this fashion and threshed out at a later date. You should be aware however, that the longer the grain is in the head exposed to sunlight the greater it will bleach out and become a less desired grain. In wetter areas it can also sprout while still in the head. As you pointed out, time is of the essence. Along those same lines, make sure that the grain you thresh out is dry enough for storage. When you bite into a kernal of hard red or white wheat, it should snap in to, not merely crush. I can't say about the soft varieties. Be prepared too, for the volume of grain that will require storage. You should have a lot of grain from two acres. The benchmark for wheat is a 60 pound bushel. You will probably have from 20 to 60 bushels per acre from your harvest. On feeding the entire stalks of grain to livestock, I would nix that idea unless you are growing a beardless variety. When cattle chew the heads, the beards can lodge in the soft tissue of their mouths and can then cause health problems such as lumps on the facial area. Some of these lumps can require medical attention by a vet. I do wish you well in your endeavor. How would I do it you ask? Well I do sometimes grow a few acres of grain, but I have a combine to do the harvesting with. Other than that, I havent' a clue.

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), May 30, 2000.

Michelle: I was considering doing just what you have done, and looked into the threshing end of it, a while back. It will be a really big job, but they used to do it all by hand. Old grainerys had a center hallway, and either on the clean wooden floor, or on a tarp, the grain shocks were beaten until the wheat berries came out. This had to scatter a lot of wheat, etc, but that was one way it used to be done. (Picture yourself taking the stocks and beating the heads on the ground until the wheat falls out). You can save the straw/stems for bedding for livestock, mulch, etc. If you can quickly check out a copy of Carla Emery's book "Country Living" from the library, she has a very good section on old time harvesting techniques for various types of grains, how to thresh by hand, winnow, etc. Very much worth the read, and the best instructions I have found. GOOD LUCK! Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), May 30, 2000.

Michelle, if at all possible, you must go to the library and get Carla Emery's book, "Encyclopedia of Country Living". It is a wonderful resource, and she has devoted an entire section to this very thing, i.e. how to cut, dry and thresh wheat. I found it fascinating, as it is a nearly lost art.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), May 30, 2000.