Combines canola harvesting

[deeredriver]

Ag shield in Benito Manitoba Canada has a directional lodging unit that allows you to straight cut canola with no loss to shatter or windrows blowing around,,,we are still currently swathing ours here in southwestern Manitoba. We just use a canola roller that pulls behind the swather,,it pushes the swath down into the stubble nice and gentle,,,you dont want to pack it in there hard as it will not cure evenly,,,Also you should start cutting the canola alittle on the green side,,,if you can roll the seeds through you fingers without any "smooshing" then you can cut with little to no green kernals,,,,but if you want zero green ,,,check out the Ag shield "Yield Shield" that what they call it,,it seems to work well,,,we just havent made the investment for our operation just yet. Hope this helps some.

 

[John_W]

Here is a link to an North Dakota extension bulletin with info on harvesing canola, including when to swath.

 

[Turk]

Thanks guys, this info helped a bunch. If anyone happens to have a canola roller for sale and would be coming through SC Kansas in the next week to 10 days please let me know.

 

[Bigsky]

I have been growing canola for 35 years. Unless it is the Polish vararity, I would not straight cut it at all. You will have to much shatter loss. I'm guessing you are growing the Argentine type, as its used by about 95%. First off, you might not have to roll it, if your using a 30 foot windrower, and have a decent stand. We always swath (windrow) east and west, as most winds are from the west or north west. Once a few seeds are starting to turn brown, black...you can start to swath. What type of combine are you usingIJ Can tell you how we set up a 9600. As for the swath pusher from Benito, forget about it. Have seen it used , not impressed.

 

[Turk]

The Canola we are trying is a new winter round up ready variety from Dekalb. K-State and Oklahoma State have been working on this for several years. I tried some 15 years ago but I got a poor stand, then it froze out. The crop we planted last fall looks very good to me, but I don't know much about it yet. We only have 70 acres, so straight cutting is probably more logical, but I want to know how it will yield, and don't want to take the chance on shattering like has happened in the area in the last couple of years. The plan is to hire a MacDon 21' windrower to lay it down. Then I am going to hire a guy with a Gleaner rotary, who has some experience with the crop. I just want to learn the process, and satisfy myself that it will be a crop in our area before I invest in equipment. We have 9600's, and lease 9650's, so info on setting up the 9600 would be good for future reference. Our Canola is about 4' tall, how big of header can a person use to swath itIJ I have a 36' MacDon 960, but I believe the windrow would be too big. I appreciate the information.

 

[Bigsky]

If using the 21', I suggest you roll it. We have farmers in our area that swath with 36' McDon's, and they have no problems. We use 30' McDons, but we still roll it for saftey sakes. All you need is to just put enough prssure on the swath to push it into the stubble a bit, and kind of tuck in the lose canola on top, so as the wind don't move it around to much, after it dries down. Not sure about winter canola, but I'm sure its the same anyways. As for the John Deere or Gleaner, you should run the cylinder in low range, top end (480-500) Bottom seive darn near closed off, top chaffer about 3_4" to start off with. If I remember correctly, wind about 750-800 on the 9600's, concave open about a third. In dry conditions, your feeder chain will do half the threshing. Not sure on your grading system, but dry for us is 9.5% moisture. Rolling out the canola, you should have no more than 2% green, otherwise you can get downgraded. You can have your canola dry, yet have to high of a green count, and then you would have to wait it out a bit. Sometimes it ripens up better after a rain on it. Up here in western Canada, we usually harvest our cereals in the day time, then switch to canola for the evening. Once your canola gets dry, it darn near needs a rain for the moisture to go back up, so we get more acres in a day this way. Also our time frame up here is short, so its very common to harvest around the clock on canola, unless a heavy dew sets in. Good luck.