Combines cracked corn

The old rule of thumb on how to set the cylinder on an 860 is.... hand pick some average ears of corn. Set the front of the concave just slightly smaller than the average ear. Hand shell the corn off of the ears you picked. Set the back of the concave just slightly smaller than the average cob. Start cylinder speed per book values. If all the corn comes off of the cob, slow it down 30-50 RPM at a time until a few kernals are left. Then sped it up about 20-30 rpm's. If all of the kernals did not shell off at the intial speed setting, then speed the cylinder-up about 20-30 RPM's at a time until the ears are clean. By following this proceedure, you never run excess speed and unnecessarily crack corn. Keep in mind that some varieties of corn are more susceptable to cob splitting than other varieties and cob and kernal moisture play a role. Even rotary combines may split those cobs.

A brand new set of cylinder bars needs to have the sharp edges wore off a little. This can lead to some cracking as well. A couple of hundred acres of wheat would help out nicelly before going into soybeans or corn.