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Harvesting
Maturity in flax is judged by color of the bolls rather than by color of the straw. Flax may continue to bloom until frost if sown late of if the season is wet and cool. Seeds from these late flowers seldom mature and are lost during threshing and cleaning. Flax is ripe enough to combine when about 90 percent of the bolls have turned brown. Any delay after this stage increases the chance of storm damage and allows weeds to grow and become more troublesome. If a swather and pickup combine are used, harvesting a few days earlier than when 90 percent of bolls are brown and does not affect yield or quality.
Flax may be harvested with a swather (windrower) or by direct combining. Direct combining is the cheaper method and is entirely satisfactory when the flax is thoroughly dry and free of weeds. However, the most common method of harvest in the North Central Region is with the swather and windrow pickup attachment on a combine because few fields are free of weeds and few ripen uniformly. Swathed flax is in condition to combine after a few days of dry weather. Swath rollers are often used to pack the windrow to prevent destruction by wind.
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