Combines Oats Rotor loss

[T__langan]

Hmmmmm, green weeds, huhIJ Been there, done that! Are the straw conditions toughIJ We see losses increase in tough straw and_or weedy conditions too. Best thing to do is pull out and cut a clean field and wait for dryer conditions to cut the weedy stuff. Just today, in fact, I made two rounds in a barley field that has a lot of grass growing in it - could almost wring water from the straw - damp, humid day. Too much loss from rotor so I parked it. Grain is nice and dry - plenty of dust rolling off of it when dumping into a wagon. I'll garantee in cleaner oats and_or dryer conditions, your windrows will clean right up. Good luck-

 

[New2Gleaner]

I realize this is of no help to you, Nick, but it's the "green, stemmy stuff" which invoked me to buy a pick-up head for my R42 and swath my weedy or grassy grain_wheat. My neighbors tell me that swathing grain went out with the "horse 'n buggy" days, but (so far) this year I've picked up over 120 acres of custom combining, merely because I'm one of few with a pick-up head for my combine. When I had my conventional combine, I had better luck direct cutting in tough conditions, but the rotaries seem to have difficulty in these conditions!

 

[T__langan]

Swathing doesn't work in this particular area. We had a neighbor who had an l3 who was going to convert this area over to swathing from direct cutting several years ago. Wherever he used to live, did a lot of swathing and had good luck. Anyhow, the reason swathing doesn't work here seemed to be we would AlWAYS get a soaking rain after the oats were swathed and it was almost impossible to get the swaths dry again. He tried it for several years before giving up and going back to direct cutting. We once came across an oat field that was extremely weedy - we could cut it, but there was an awfull lot of weed seed in the sample that would spoil the oats in storage. The guy ended up letting all the pressure off of his conditioning rolls on his haybine and cut them in a swath. We had good weather for the swaths to dry and we went in and picked up those swaths with our direct cut head. Between the haybine and using the wrong head for lack of an available pickup head, there were high harvest losses but boy did we end up with a nice, clean sample! The best thing we have come across is a chemical called Butyrac. we spray all our oats fields with this stuff just before they head out. Takes care of all weeds and leaves out intercropped alfalfa unscathed. It has been years since we've had to deal with a weedy oats field on our farm - if only everyone would use it or something similar, it would be a joy to cut oats! Might be something for you to look into Nick. Take care-

 

[New2Gleaner]

Sounds like you get a lot of rain, Tom! Generally, I only leave a swath lay for 1 good drying day. The grain is still a little tough, but 1 good drying day seems to knock most of the moisture out of the weeds. This is my first year running my R42, and I realize I have a lot to learn about it, but my R42 does a terrible job in weedy conditions, compared to my previous combines.

 

[Hyper_Harvest]

Nick,

 

[Dan]

Wheather you remove the wires from concaves or seperator grate you should plug the holes that the wires were in. Small grain straw can plug and bridge from time to time if the holes are not plugged. You may not see plugging when you let it clean out but it could well be happening. Gleaner plug kit good for 250 holes 71371547. Some have used a liquid of some type to smear into the holes and it turns very hard. The liquid stuff would break out like glass if you choose to reinstall the wires.