If you haven’t heard of the term combine in the farming industry yet, this is a machine used for grain harvesting, threshing, and cleaning.
These pieces of equipment need to be equipped and adjusted accordingly for crops to be harvested properly. It’s vital to adjust and maintain combines well to minimize any harvest losses while delivering high-quality crops. When doing so, the goal here is to have a smooth and even flow of crop that moves through it.
For those who want to learn about how to maintain and adjust their combine for efficient performance. Check out these top 6 tips before applying for jobs in grain harvesting!
- Proper Safety and Maintenance
Before anything else, it’s crucial to ensure you and your crop’s safety when handling and maintaining your combine. Workaround the combined equipment safely, following all instructions from the operator’s manual.
Also, before you begin grain harvesting, follow the maintenance checklist, which is usually provided by a manufacturer, inspecting for worn parts that require repair or replacement.
Inspect the roller chains on corn heads and knives on cutter bar head for small grains and soybeans. When it comes to the separation and threshing area, inspect the concave and rotor for any signs of damage or wearing. Also check the sieves’ condition, located in the cleaning shoe area, checking for sharp edges on the augers, as this may result to grain damage.
- Adjusting the Header
This is the first contact point with your crops, and if incorrectly adjusted, it may be the main reason for grain loss. Headers would cut and gather crops, making it an important part to take care of.
Strip the roll spacing and set according to your stalks’ thickness, with deck plates adjusted properly to minimize the loss of corn ears and kernels. The same goes for the auger clearances and gathering speed.
- Adjusting the Feeder house
This part of the combine is where the grain enters from. You’ll need to properly adjust and set it, according to your crops. It’s also crucial to adjust the height position of its feed drum, which prevents grain damage.
The feeder house’s accelerator should be at a low speed so all ears move to the combine, beginning the threshing process. If it’s too fast, then the corn cobs may break, with kernels lost even before threshing starts.
- Adjusting the Threshing
With the threshing, focus on the cylinder and/or rotor speed. Use the lowest rotor speed to shell the grain, beginning with the recommended factory settings, fine-tuning it as you do.
Make sure the rotor chamber stays full to lessen harsh contact with grains and that rotor speeds are low, increasing it as the last resort. Furthermore, close all concave spacings so you have increased threshing capabilities.
- Adjusting the Grain Cleaning
After adjusting the threshing, grains are separated from non-grains in the chaffer, shoe sieves, and cleaning fan. Be sure to set the sieve and fan settings well, as they are the ones that help deliver clean and high-quality end products.
Don’t let the fan speed go too slow, as this results in stalks and cobs found in the grain tank. If the speed is too high, you may lose grains from the combine, so make sure both sieve adjustments and fan speed work together.
- Cleaning the Combines
Most of the cleaning happens during the initial blast of air that comes off the combine’s pan. This is why it’s important to have a uniform distribution of grain feeding off your pan and to the sieves.
When setting the fan, set it to the highest setting at first. If you notice grain thrown out from the back, reduce the settings incrementally until such time there is no grain blowing from the back, while the fan is at the highest setting it can be. Make sure that you get as much trash as possible out of the fan so kernels won’t get caught and carried to the cleaning shoe or combine straw walkers.
Besides this, check the combine’s tailings to ensure there are only a few whole kernels inside. If you see there are a lot, open the sieves a bit more, finding balance.
Wrapping It Up
While combines are becoming more technologically advanced with more features to automate and make adjustments easier to perform, you will still need to make the required adjustments to accommodate your field and crop conditions. With the right steps to follow, you can be well on your way to performing tasks with more ease.
Hopefully, these tips on maintaining and adjusting your combine gave you more insight on what to do. Prepare for the grain harvesting season and make sure that your equipment is ready to use now!
Do you have questions or want to share your tips and ideas when working on your farm equipment? Share it in the comments section below, I appreciate all of your thoughts!
