Combines A IJ for USA folk

[IowaDan]

I think we are allowed 2% foriegn material in our grain, then we start getting docked. I don't know of any evlevators that clean the grain after it is delivered. The problem as I see it is that alot of farmers don't take the time to adjust their machines. I've always said that there are combine operators and then there are combine drivers. Some operations are so large that they higher people to drive their machines but don't know anything about setting them. If the farmers had to get in those grain bins and scoop out the grain like the elevator workers have to, the grain from the farm would be a whole lot cleaner. Just my opinion, others may disagree.

 

[shopguy]

Here is ND, we don't get charged for dockage, but they just take the % dockage off the gross wt. Some elevators pay a premium for clean wheat and discount 2 - 4 - 6 cents per bushel for every .4% over .4% dockage. With our Gleaner we are usually in the .5 to 1% dockage depending on if we can keep if full. When I worked in Oz I was shocked to see how picky they are on the samples. You can get a whole load rejected because they found a little stone or two. That wouldn't fly in the areas where they still swath grain. I think we are very lucky with the grading system we have in the US.

 

[T__langan]

None of the co-ops around here clean the grain either. As others have said, you are allowed some FM before they dock price, but it is my observation that the operator (or driver) has way more to do with the grain sample than the machine. I've watched trucks being unloaded that they had to keep digging bean pods out of the door to keep the beans flowing out. I'd be embarrassed to take loads of grain in that looked like that! That being said, the guys at the co-op like to tell us that our Gleaner consistently makes for the some of the cleanest samples - but you read on these ag forums where others are saying that about their red and green machines too. Maybe it is the operators or maybe the co-op guys just like to stroke our egos! But since this is a Gleaner forum, I'm gonna say it's the combine. I will have to say that Gleaner has what I think is a far better cleaning system that could make a poor "driver" look like a pretty good "operator". What really burns us is when we take nice, clean samples of corn in to the co-op and often haul loads back out to store at home that are full of cobs! But, to answer your question - I really don't think that US manufacturers design combines that forsake clean grain samples in order to increase capacity. When you think about it, combine shoes haven't changed really at all over the years. Chaffers and sieves are the same as they were since the start of mechanized harvesting - only have gotten larger. Gleaner advanced cleaning technology with their pneumatic cleaning (accelerator roll system),and other makes have or will be coming out with self-leveling but once the grain is on the shoe, it works the same as any other.

 

[oldstruck]

This has to do with the operator of the combine_machine. Any kind of machine really, if you think about it. We had a 1660 CaseIH and I could get clean nice looking samples out if it. So much so our area conglomerate elevator used our grain when they were being inspected, (think about that a second). Since we have gotten our R42, I am getting better at gettting good clean samples. It operates different than the red ones. I can get a better sample of milo in the R42 than I ever could with the 1660. BUT it takes time for someone to learn, and I think any more no one wants to learn, they just want to jump in and go. The green ones have a button on their over head console for each crop, But you still have to fine tune them for your conditions, how many people do you think actually get out and fine tune their new deere, I bet they are bragging at the coffee shop how easy it is to set their combine. I checked a neighbors field with one of those. I will keep our R42, in stock form no less, from what I saw in their field. I pays to stop and check. Plus good help is hard to find, that knows what they are doing. Well anyway, I think I am preaching at the chior. I'll go back in my hole. Thanks for looking. Oh by the way, I got 5 cents more a bushel for all my grain 1_2 mile further down the road from a smaller elevator operatation, than the big guy. That was 2 years ago I switched, it pays to check around and deliver clean grain.