At Marlie Stud we use a Sunshine reaper and binder. Reaper and Binders were used to cut crops such as wheat or oats and then bind them using twine and a knotter to create a sheaf. The sheaves were then stacked in a stook to fully dry.
The knotting device used to bind the grain bundles was developed by John Appleby at the age of 18 years old. His invention was used by all the major manufacturers of large grain harvesting machines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before the knotter was invented farmers had to manually tie their sheaves which was very labour intensive.
Marlie Draught Horse Stud 