Harvesting Tips

Adjust the combine for the crop being harvested and the field condition.

Use a ground speed that will not overload the combine. The engine must be at full rpm to keep the separator at full speed. Use ground speed for slower travel or shift to a lower gear, but do not slow down the engine.

If the concave is set too close for the crop being harvested, the straw will be excessively ground up and more horsepower will be required to thresh the crop.

If the concave is set too wide, the crop will not be completely threshed.

After the concave is properly adjusted, the cylinder speed is then adjusted to achieve maximum threshing with the least crop damage. If crop damage does occur, do not widen the concave clearance. Instead, reduce the cylinder speed. Concave spacing in these crops has very little effect on seed damage.

Crops, such as edible beans and peas, are easily cracked and can require the use of a special slow speed cylinder drive. When combining edible beans and peas, keep the combine full to provide enough material to cushion the crop against cracking.

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Adjust precleaner openings with tool (A) to pass the grain or seed to the lower sieve in the first two-thirds of the chaffer without admitting too much coarse material. Adjust the precleaner to the minimum setting for all crops except corn.

Use as much air as possible without blowing over clean grain and seed. Heavy crops require more air than light seed crops.

When using a cutting platform, cut the crop as high as possible without loss of low heads. Adjust reel position and speed for even feeding. Keep the cutterbar in register and the guards in alignment for clean cutting.

When harvesting corn, keep the corn head only as low as necessary for ears. Keep it centered in the rows to prevent ear loss.

When using a belt pickup, keep the windrow centered so material is fed evenly into the feeder house. The grain heads must be lying in one direction. Operate the combine so the heads are picked up first.

When harvesting soybeans with a row-crop head, keep the header as low as possible. When harvesting crops such as milo or sunflowers, operate the header just low enough to cut the heads from the stalks.

A-Precleaner Adjustment Tool

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