Harvesting and Grain Cleaner is a very special moment in the life of rural workers when all forces and means in the economy are directed towards achieving a single goal. What does it take to win this battle?
Grain Harvesting Technology
Grain harvesting brings surprises every year. As a rule, on these hot days, it turns out that it was possible to prepare for certain situations in advance and meet them fully armed. One of the most significant points is the qualifications of the operator. This factor is sometimes much more important than the power of the most productive combine. A well-trained combine operator can increase the productivity of the equipment by 15 – 30%. It is quite justified practice, when every two to three years before the start of harvesting, machine operators undergo intensive training.
This helps to better understand the basic relationships between technological processes, get rid of stereotypes, and refresh your knowledge, which is very useful. It is also recommended to make the most of the information coming from dealers and sellers of equipment: you can always learn something new that will allow you to increase the share of added value in the total value of manufactured products.
Plan the Course of Harvesting
It is advisable to prepare for the harvesting campaign in advance. To facilitate planning, it is useful to display the harvesting process on a time axis. Here are the starting points and the approximate number of working days it will take to harvest each crop on the farm, depending on the performance of your combine. Such a drawing will help to identify the most stressful moments of the harvesting campaign and assess potential threats, which, in turn, will help to avoid an emergency.
Before starting work, enlist the support of a grain harvesting service or check out the rental programs offered by some combine harvester manufacturers. This will make it possible to overcome difficulties, cope with unfavorable weather conditions, and lodging crops, especially if a high harvest is predicted, and the farm does not have a lot of its equipment.
Take Care of the Harvesting Equipment
Machine downtime during harvest is expensive. In Germany, for example, every minute of downtime for a combine costs about ten euros. It is very important to timely organize the prevention and repair of harvesting equipment, bring it into good technical condition. Delayed repairs not only increase costs during the precious harvesting hours but also lead to damage. You can often hear: “Well, this detail will stand still!” Yes, if the beater has exhausted its resource, the threshing machine can withstand one more season, but its performance will be 20% lower, and in difficult harvesting conditions, it will not cope with the load.
Therefore, it is recommended, even during harvesting, to make a list of all the features of the work or shortcomings of one or another unit of the combine. Next year, such a list will make it possible to make the repair work point-to-point.
