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OK...grain, school me again...

D

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
Decided to run out and move the combine and pull the grain truck out and see could I get it to the road. 1000' of muddy lane and it was touch and go for a bit, but that old truck is like a tank, even with a full load of corn. Have to say I was impressed. It never stopped. So this load of corn is different than any other I have delivered. There is a lot of broken kernels. Not much other debris, just a lot of the corn is shattered. Test weight was a couple points lower than normal at 56 and this was the driest I have ever had at 15.5%. No changes were made to combine settings. Is the damage due to the dryness? It was also pretty cold the day I combined...maybe in the 20's. I took a hit on the damage, don't know how much yet. Curious as to what might be going on here?
a246057.jpg
 
Dry corn cracks easier than wet, rubbery corn.

Frozen corn cracks more than normal temp corn.

It also shells off easier, so you can open up the cyclinders, and slow it down, to get to where it is shelling without much damage again....

Paul
 
Speed makes feed! Like paul says...lower the cyl speed, open the concaves when you make too many chips. Another sign is flour blowing away in the wind while unloading the grain tank.
 
Rotor at 280-300.

Concave at 4.

If the field is yielding less than 120 and you have very little leaves/tops going through the machine, make a pass at 5 m.p.h. and report back with what you see.
 
Looks to me like you have several issues. That corn looks stressed, like it was too wet or dry or maybe short on fertilizer during the growing season, hard to tell in that pic tho. If it was poorer corn that will contribute to this issue. Also as others have said your cylinder is likely too fast and concave too tight. Are you getting shelling at the head? If your header is running too fast it will start shelling and cracking there, again that will show more in stressed corn.
 
Heck yeah it's stressed! We were way low on water for the first half of the summer. After that I tuned it out for self preservation...but it rained more. Plants are much shorter than normal, ears smaller,...

If you think the corn was stressed, you should have spent a day with ME.
 
I would do that...except I finished corn over a week back. I am archiving all this for next year. But then that will be a whole new year with it's own set of troubles. :)
 
Ahhhh...sometimes I feel like I enrolled in corn college. Next year will be my 4th year at it. Do I get a bachelor of corn degree or ????

Appreciate the info. I was thinking it must be something like that. Guess I should have known it wasn't as easy as just set it and forget it. Thing is, I had no trouble up to the last run and never thought to look in the tank to see how it was coming. I was loading the truck when I noticed I was going to be hauling cracked corn. Another lesson learned, and paid for....(sigh)

Thanks!!
 
Dave as grain dries down it becomes easier to crack it as it becomes harder. So you need to be checking your grain sample more often. I usually check hourly while unloading. Different varieties and field conditions can change the needed setting quickly. Also you mentioned it being cold. Frozen corn/beans will need to be handled differently than wetter crops.

So I would say slower rotor speed and open up the concaves too.
 
When the corn gets dryer, slow your rotor down. You might have to drive slower if the combine gets too full, but you will have less damage.
 
I find corn is 'different' above or below 24%, and again above or below 15%. Like, those are major change points, 16-23% corn doesn't change much.... But if you cross 24 or 15%, you better keep an eye on it.

I've also found above 33% is another change point, but we all hope we don't need to deal with that.... Sigh...... ;) those are not the good years!

Paul
 
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