Combines Concave Settings for wheatIJ

Dingo, Ask three different farmers how they like to set the concaves for wheat and you will most likely get three different answers. I'm a custom harvester and I cut several thousand acres of wheat and then in the fall I cut several thousand acres of corn beans and milo. For wheat I use only the small wire concaves and the slotted grates. In fall while harvesting corn, beans and milo I run only the large wire concaves and the key stock grates. I always have the rotor pinch point set on the 8th concave bar. Granted that does involve a couple hours of work twice a year to change the concaves but anyone who runs that many acres should at least pull out the middle concave occasionally to level the concave and check the pinch point. I almost always have to level the concave and sometimes change the pinch point when I change the concaves. If you harvest just a few hundred acres of wheat, corn, and beans I see no reason why you couldn't run a combination of large and small wire concaves and do an acceptable job. I'm sure someone like Farm Kid2 will tell you what combination he uses.

In wheat I used to leave my front concave in and cover it up and then run 2 small wire concaves behind it but last year I changed. I now run all 3 concaves with small wire, but I pull every other wire out of the back half of the second one and every other wire on the entire 3rd concave. The reason I did this was, I had trouble when wheat was 17-21% with rotor loss. Also, on the back of the rotor (specialty) instead of running 8 seperator bars, I run 6, first row I have 2 and very rear of rotor I have 4. This seems to take away some of the rotor rumble when straw is tough. I think your setup really depends on moisture and yield and wether you want to save straw or not. Sometimes you have to beat the straw up a bit to get it all thrashed and seperated depending on your set up. I don't change grates on rear, I run a round bar grate on rear for all crops, this let's more trash onto the chaffer but I have a Gorden Air Jet Chaffer and the sample is seed perfect. I don't sell these chaffers so believe me when I say they are worth the money, not only for the sample but the strength of the frame compared to IH. Hope this helps.