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 concaves are set too wide, the crop will not be completely threshed.

After the concaves are properly adjusted, the separator 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 feed accelerator 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 slower feed accelerator drive. When harvesting edible beans and peas, keep the combine full to provide enough material to cushion the crop against cracking.

For potential improvements in straw quality consider that the following can help improve straw quality depending on conditions: slowing feeder house chain speed, slowing feed accelerator speed, slowing rotor speed, opening concave, reducing number or threshing elements, or installing round bar concaves.

For improved performance in sidehill conditions, consider raising the auger bed dividers, installing the tall chaffer dividers available from your John Deere dealer, removing or clipping the removable plastic fingers in the rear corners of the chaffer element, and/or improve chaff and grain distribution by installing separator grate covers. Each of these can improve chaff and grain distribution to the cleaning shoe that will help improve the machines performance in sidehills.

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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.

Adjust chaffer openings to pass the grain or seed to the lower sieve in the first two-thirds of the chaffer without admitting too much coarse material.

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

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