Combines When to harvest

let's say it's an educated guess and you're at the beginning of a steep learning curve. The "best" moisture content is just at dry, not below because you'll lose bushel weight. When I combined for the first time the grain was more than damp, it was "wet". I guess I was keen to go! I assume you're straight cutting, not windrowing. Check individual kernels_beans for maturity. When you "think" it's ready, cut a small sample and have it tested. That will establish a reference point. Different crops have different moisture content to be considered dry. Any reading greater than dry could lead to heating. I think it would be best to ask a neighbor or Farm Bureau fieldman for advice. Most of us had to learn by trial and error. HTH.

Corn is fairly simple, you walk out in the field, randomly grab a couple of ears, hand shell them into a coffee can and take it to the elevator. The ideal moisture is 15%. At that moisture, the elevator doesn't charge for drying and you still get the weight from the moisture. We very rarely get corn that dry but we normally wait until it's less than 18%. With beans we just go try combining them. When you look in the hopper, if there is a lot of green pods and green beens, it's probably too early. You can always run a sample of that to the elevator too and see what they say. Nomally they can tell you better than anyone else. I hope this helps. lancie

I would say first you need your own moisture tester. Deere offers a pretty good model at a reasonable price which will test most any crop. I would say after getting one of your own or borrowing from a buddy go to the corn crop, use gloves to shell a couple cobs, so long as the kernels shell easily, and test them. I own three portable moisture testers to get the best average that way theres no fighting the elevator idiots. The use of gloves ensures that your skin emitting oil and other moisture wont effect the test. Id say putting any grain in a bag or container and driving to an elevator, depending on the distance is a bad idea. If the moisture is a little on the high side to begin with it will continue to rise when piled up or sealed up. Or in the opposite dry when left open and scattered. Both ways could get you a bad reading which will multiply with tonage by the time it gets to the elevator.

I really dont think that the trip to the elevator would make that much difference inj moisture content. If the moisture is on the high side you probably wont cut any way. I also fail to see how the oils from your skin would do the same. I just grab a plastic wal mart sack, jump in the hopper and catch what comes out of the clean grain then drive it over to the elevator.

I have instructions with two of my three moisture testers stating not to touch sample with skin before testing as well as touching inside test area near probes. Makes perfect sense when you think about it, its usually 90degres or more when were harvesting,means uncontrollable sweating. Also on several occasions cutting high moisture crops like Milo,Ive tested in the combine tank with all three testers, then bagged it up to take to the elevator, within 20 minutes the sample went from 15% to 18.5% moisture which was unacceptable. There was two men killed last year at a nearby elevator, one silo had exploded,the cause was too much high moisture wheat being let through after being tested. I DONT CUT WET GRAIN NO MATTER WHAT THE FARMER WANTS, AND ITS TOO IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE YOUR TESTS ARE CONSISTENT WITH NO HUMAN ERROR. THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS WHEN GRAIN IS GOING TO BE STORED.