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Adjust Combine to Get the Most from Uneven, Drought-Damaged
Crops
9/19/2003
Ron F.
Meyer
Area Extension Agent (Agronomy)
Colorado State University
Extension
Golden Plains Area |
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The effects of this summer’s drought conditions will continue
into harvest, drying, and storage. Paying special attention to each of these
activities will help reduce further losses in a year when each ear, head, and
pod will be important economically.
Your success or failure harvesting
this year’s crop will be determined when the combine first touches the
crop. Ears may be small and light, meaning it will be easy for them to "escape"
the combine header. Take a critical look at your header and determine if
add-ons are necessary to keep small ears from falling back down the snouts or
from being thrown out of the header as you move through the field. Soybeans may
be difficult to harvest again this year if they are short or if they mature
early due to dry conditions. Matching header adjustments to crop conditions
will be very important to minimize harvest losses.
Yields for dryland
crops will be low, making it difficult to keep enough material flowing into the
combine to effectively thresh the crop without excessive damage to kernels and
seed. Combine adjustment is the key to preventing excessive seed damage. One
possibility is to increase field operating speed; however, this will only be
successful if corresponding adjustments are made to all header controls.
Gathering chain, snapping roll, and reel speeds need to be increased with
higher field speeds.
Monitor both the amount and evenness of material
flowing through the header to the feeder house. Uneven flows will indicate
improper adjustments and can result in increased grain damage or combine
plugging.
Remember to adjust stripper plate and snapping roll openings
on your corn head to compensate for potentially smaller ears and
stalks.
Another strategy to decreased material flowing through the
combine is to adjust the cylinder (or rotor) speed and concave clearance. Check
your owner’s manual to set the machine for expected conditions and make
refinements as field conditions change. Remember that the variation in yield
and grain moisture content from dry areas of the field to not-so-dry areas will
be more pronounced this year and you will have to be alert to making in-field
adjustments.
As if the variations in yield weren’t enough to worry
about, dry years also tend to cause decreases in test weight and smaller seed.
Fan speed and sieve openings should be adjusted to compensate for this. Again,
start with the owner’s manual settings and fine tune as you go.
Unfortunately, plant maturity will likely be off schedule this year. Stalks may
dry faster or slower than the ears, depending on the variety and severity of
stress. This can increase the potential for lodging and pod, head, or ear
losses as the fall progresses. This, coupled with a potential increase of
stress-induced diseases, may cause producers to consider harvesting at the
upper range of moisture content to prevent field losses and storage problems.
The decrease in vegetation in the field should speed in-field drying, but could
increase shatter losses if over-drying occurs.
Drying grain for storage
also may be challenging this year. Those variations in crop moisture content
that made combine adjustments necessary will also cause problems when drying
and storing crops.
Finally, this crop is going to require more frequent
in-bin monitoring to make sure it stays in condition through the storage
season. Proper cool-down will be important.
Source: Bill Campbell,
Extension Agricultural Systems Specialist |
Page Created and Maintained by: Perry D. Brewer, Area
Extension Agent (Technology Education/Youth)
10/2/2003 |
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Colorado
State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Kit Carson, Phillips,
Washington and Yuma counties cooperating. Extension programs are
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