famitm. Saturday. July 12, 1975 From Local Ag Teachers: YMSBitheCMklM By Glenn Spongier MnhdßCatnl By the time joa read this article, much of the bnrky will be harvested and aome wheat will be ready to combine. Bat before the combine moves into your next field, I want you to a* yourself a question. Are you and is the combine doing the best passible job to get the mast grain into your grain hint economically? Whether you combine your own grain or have it cut fay a custom operator, deter mining the time to harvest is a major management decision. Grain moisture should be the determining factor. If the moisture is too high; the grain will not be threshed completely from the beads. Also the chance of the grain heating and spoiling in the inns is in creased. On the other hand, if the grain is left in the field longer than needed, the chance of the straw lodging and grain lost ‘a head shattering is greatly in creased. The correct moisture to harvest and to store smaQ grains are: Barley: Harvest when the grain is 14 percent or less in moisture content. Store when the grain is 13 percent or less in moisture content. Wheat: Harvest when grain is 14 percent or less in moisture content. Store when the grain is 13 percent or less in moisture content Oats: Harvest when grain is 14 percent or less in moisture content. Store when flie grain is 12 percent or less in moisture content The combine can be ad justed and operated to rfwnmate almost all grain locs, but this is impractical One thing yon should remember: (forward speed in the most important factor ?»*«- ’ P m*}- in optimizing the per formance of the combine.) In general as your ground speed increases, your losses increase. There are basicly five types of losses: shatter loss, cotter bar loss, cylinder loss, separating km, and cleaning loss. Your job as a manager is to reduce these losses, yet be timely in harvesting. Shatter loss was men tioned above. It is the grain winch is on the ground which can’t be readied by the adter bar. The machine is not responsible for this loss. Cutter bar loss is the grain lost doe to file rough or poor adjustment of the cotter bar or red. Losses are caused by the adter bar being set too high, causing grain beads to pass mder the bead. (This is especially a heavy loss with soybeans.) More of the loss occurs from improper reel adjustment In general the reel should be 6 to 10 indies in front of the knives in standing grain and the bats just below the lowest heads. When grain is down, the reel shonld be lowered and moved forward. The reel speed shonld be between 1V« to •!Vt times the ground speed. Cylinder loss is the grain lost over the straw rack in the form of ontbreshed heads. Cylinder losses dmdd be less than 1 percent. Damage to the grain limits file severity of threshing. Severity of threshing incr eases with increasing cylinder speeds and decreasing the concave clearance. The smaller the grain the faster the cylinder. The concave clearance should be increased with the larger seeds and the more straw going through the combine. More straw the seed without increasing cylinder loss; RUNG MEDIA however more gram will be lost in separation. Separating loss is tbe threshed grain lost out the rear of the combine. This comes from two areas. The one is gram lost over the rack, which is caused by grain not being able to work its way through the straw. This loss is reduced by decreasing the amount of straw over the rack. (Either raise the cutter bar or decrease ground speed.) The second area is shoe sieve losses, which are caused by overloading or sieve plugging. Without overloading and proper airflow, tbe only loss should be light grains blown out the rear. Cleaning losses are not a loss of grain, but a decrease in crop value due to foreign matter. Your clue to cleaning will be the grain and foreign material in the grain tank. Problems are usually caused by over thresbing at the cylinder which breaks up the straw and weeds into small pieces. Secondly the shoe sieve or chaffer sieve may be open too far allowing materials to fall through. The combine operator should check the ground FISHER SPRAY PAINTERS (Henry K. Fisher) SANDBLASTING and SPRAY PAINTING INTERIOR and EXTERIOR Aerial Ladder Equipment Office A Shop - 667 Hartman Station Rd. Residence - 2322 Old Philadelphia Pike Lancaster, Penna. For FREE Estimates Call 717-393-6530 B*"- .* Fiddler’s picnic to be staged on July 20 The hills of northern Berks County will ring with music on Sunday, July 20 when the Lehigh Valley Folksong Society presents an Old Time Fiddler’s Picnic. The festivities to be held at tbe Kempton Community Center, Kempton, Pa. will begin at 11:00 ajn. and continue into tbe evening. This picnic is designed to give all musicians an op portunity to exhibit their talents in bluegrass, folk and traditional music with an »mph»