soybean shattering at cutterbar

tractormiallis · Oct 16, 2013

Tried combining soys yesterday before the rains started. I thought they were just turned ripe as leaves had recently all fallen off but they are shattering pretty bad on the cutterbar. I have reel speed slowed down and ground speed is slow also. Sickles are newer.Still losing a lot. Will it help to cut them before they fully dry out once the rain finally stops?

JD Seller · Oct 16, 2013

I would still check the sickle sections sharpness. Also the hold downs and guards. The cleaner/quicker the cut the less shatter.

Also you can try cutting earlier in the day. I have had to quit in the afternoons as the shatter gets too bad when everything drys out.

You have to go by the conditions not the "look" of the stems and pods.

What machine are you using??? Different setting on different combines/headers.

tractormiallis · Oct 16, 2013

this is with a F2 with floating cutterbar

JD Seller · Oct 16, 2013

The floating cutterbar setup on those heads made shattering worse when the soybeans pods are real dry. The beans have to go up a fairly steep slope right behind the sickle.

Check out the floating sicklebar stabilizer. If I remember correctly it is a ball joint type of arm on the cutterbar. I have seen the stabilizer be bad and the cutterbar shake side to side too much and cause shatter at the sickle.

tractormiallis · Oct 16, 2013

That is what I am finding out about that header. The steep slope makes feeding of the crop more difficult as well and beans that shatter roll down to the ground instead of back to the auger.

andy r · Oct 16, 2013

Everything that has been said is right - reel speed, sharp sections, reel height, time of day related to moisture and toughness of pods. This year with the drought in Eastern/South East Iowa I have found a great deal of variablity across my fields. When the beans are waist to chest high the reel comes up. When the beans are short the reel goes clear down. Short beans going down hill the reel speed increases. Heavy beans the reel goes slower as they feed into the auger almost by themselves. Have you tired cutting as low as possible - right at the ground. The bean is stronger there and will shake less when cut. Cut early in the morning or at night if you can get them through. My problem this year are soybeans that are still green with green pods randomly across the field. Something to do with the drought and then rains 3 - 4 weeks ago. At the sametime beans next to them are beginning to open up. Guess I have waited a while extra and will just accept some green pods/beans.

JMS/.MN · Oct 16, 2013

A doublecut bar/sickle will shatter less, but you don"t change them without significant cost. Are you combining row beans? Are they bunching on the cutterbar? Consider cutting at an angle across the field.....20-30 degrees. If beans are thin, consider wrapping duct tape across the lower ends of the fingers on the reel (creating a batt reel). Stalks pull in sooner, less shatter.

If running the FCB by hand, keep the bar lower. On my F2 I mounted a rod on the thresher housing, ran it up through a ring at the front of the cab frame......it indicated hdr height. I zeroed it at the ground, put tape on the window...raised it til the bar was about to come off the ground.....put tape on the window. When the rod was between the tapes, I knew where the bar was in relation to the ground. Running the bar lower cuts the angle of the sheets the beans need to ride up on. Running on the low side, the sheets are nearly flat, so beans go straight in.

Adirondack case guy · Oct 17, 2013

Had the same problem here, with a Case 2166 and 1020 header. We took a peice of 2" PVC pipe and ripped it lengthways on the table saw, and bolted it in the pan, just behind the guards.
that keeps the shelled beans from rolling out on the hills.
Beans were very short and pods were on the ground, so header loss is bound to occure.
This was our last bean field and last few passes, Yesterday afternoon. With heavy dews each night we couldn't start combining untill about noon. Moisture ran 12-15%, a bit on the high side, but wasn't much that could be done about that. Crop was going directley onto truck and to the mill where they were roasting them.
Loren, the Acg.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 17, 2013

you can't do beans before they are dried out unless you want to get docked for moisture, sometimes you are going to get a little loss, make sure the sickle is good and sharp, the floating bar will work ok if you are cutting below the pods

Tom OConnor · Oct 17, 2013

I have found that an air tube on the header works wonders. It makes it a little more dusty but any bean shatter gets blown right in the header. You will very seldom see a bean on the ground. It also works great in wheat. It will nearly eliminate loss from the reel and knife.

tractormiallis · Oct 17, 2013

Anyone know how much an air tube cost? I know AWS is a good one, but just out of curiosity...

Tom OConnor · Oct 18, 2013

Mine was a little less than $10,000.00 for a thirty footer.

JD Seller · Oct 19, 2013

Tom that is more than his whole combine is worth. LOL

soybean shattering at cutterbar

tractormiallis

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