Question for oj or others on canola harvesting

Hey oj have you ever straight cut canola with your Dominator? How did it handle it? Canola planting here in Georgia has really picked up in the past few years.One guy I cut wheat for has planted about 600 acres this year and wants me to cut it.I have never even seen canola up close much less combined it.He said he is going to spray it to kill it when it is ready and wants me to straight cut it with the grain platform.I have always heard the seed is very small and all the cracks in the combine have to be sealed up.Is it a tough crop to cut like this? I am seeing a picture in my head of trying to cut green turnips to get the seed and that scares me.Somebody please tell me what to expect. Up till now I didnt have one acre of wheat slated to cut for next year and seriously considered calling it quits.I had been offered a real good paying job a couple weeks ago going back to work as a mechanic.Once you start custom harvesting it is extremely hard to just walk away.This guy with the canola now is going to plant enough wheat and canola to keep me going next year.I really would like to know what to expect before I get started in canola.Thanks

Haley, I've never straight cut canola, although there are a few guys up here who do, we swath ours then use a pick up header...

If he's going to decicate it for harvest then the plant will be dry to combine... The seed is very small, turnip seed size, maybe a little smaller...

The only thing i seal up on my combine are the two trap doors on the return an clean grain elevators, we do lose a little seed on the pick up belts, but the lose is acceptable, straight cutting tends to have seed loss from shatter as the knives cut and the reel pulls it crop in, the farther in front of the auger you knife is the better it seems, there is an outfit up here selling BISO headers for straight cutting canola, they have their knife way out in front. Canola can be a tall crop (depends on variety etc), and that can make it an issue on some headers (I know you re-did your header).

I think the claas book has settings in it for combining canola (rape), it does seem to need quite a bit of air to lift all the small pieces of straw/pods that go over the sieves, thrashing isn't too hard, most of the pods will be open and the seeds out before they get to the cylinder, but the cylinder speed does need to be fairly low (800-1000rpm) is where i used to run mine (I do wheat at about 1500...).

You might want to think about side knives on the header as the stuff can be tangled together and then hang up on the dividers... A hoop type divider works better than the pointy ones it seems, as long as the hoop is taller than the crop...

I have cut Camelina directly, not sure if it is about the same size or not, Camelina is about like Alfalfa seed, I used a fixed hole sieve in my CASE combine and it works very well, 98% or so clean seed that way, sure my info does not help with your machines, I do know with Camelina it has very high oil content even in the dust, so you want to keep the engine area blown clean or you can have a fire, also watch stepping on anything with the dust on it as it makes metal very slick
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Have never combined it myself but from reading about it I know it can be a real bear to get it to feed into the combine thru a strait cut header. You will need side knives on your header, basically short upright sickles. With a little extra machine prep and with the dessication I think you should be fine running it thru your Dominator.

Ever heard of Agway? They promoted winter canola here back in 1991. I planted 20 acres in the late summer, for harvest in 1992. I had an old conventional Gleaner at the time. I ran with the header most of the way up! Sieves closed down as tight as they would go. Bin sample was pretty good. Yield was so-so. It didn't like our wet ground. It came through the winter OK, but as spring progressed, it thinned itself out a lot.

We custom straight cut quite a bit of canola/OSR back in the UK with Claas combines. We had an extension on one combine that clipped on and extended the header floor and knife out about 15inches. That helps it feed but you'd be ok without an extension. We also had verticle side knives. As OJ said, if it's been decicated it'll combine ok. The newer varieties of canola not as tall as they used to be. It does shell out easy, so you don't want to beat it with the reel. Few trying straight cutting up here in Canada but wind shelling can be a problem here. I think you'll be ok cutting it straight. Chris

Thanks for all the info on.All the responses have set my mind at ease a little about the crop.Both of my grain platforms have the extended floor already so maybe that is a plus to start with.The head I rebuilt two seasons ago has a floor that I extended out 18" from the factory location.I am courious now as to how this header will feed compared to the one with the Hart Carter bar.I learn something new everyday.I had no idea Canola seed actually grew in pods.I always thought the seed formed on the plant like grain sorghum or milo.Are the pods just in the top of the plant or do they grow like soybeans all over the limbs on the plant? I have searched the internet for Canola pictures but have found only pictures of green flowering plants that you cant really see the pods good on.

found these by googling canola pods, I never seen it before this myself

The pods grow on about the top 2/3 of the plant. Cut just low enough to get the bottom pods and you can probably leave about a ft of stubble. A good crop will mat together pretty good. It wants to be about 8% moisture or below for safe storage. Being a small seed it can be difficult to aerate in a bin. Your header with the extended floor sound like it will work well in canola.

Wow! Thanks Case Nutty. Those look just like our wild turnip pods here.I was expecting a pod more like a soybean.

Do you have mustard there? It's common here. Canola just looks like a giant form of it. Same family I believe- cabbage/ Brassica family?