Hey @SW Sask Grain Farmer, harvesting canola with those green stalks but dry tops sounds like a real headache. Have you had to make any major adjustments to your settings so far? Sharing what you've already experimented with might help others chime in with what's working for them.

 

It seems to be a fight between mostly shoe loss and a little separator loss , and that’s with that separator grate cover on either side which I’ve been hearing people are running 2 per side making a real big difference. And with the real dry tops it easily overthreshs making for tougher separation. Was running filler plates 1-2 on either side to try aswell.

 

Huh, FormaFrank looks like Johnny Five from the movie Short Circuit.
Strategy, need some, quick!

 

Neeeeedddd. Inpuuuttttttt

 

You’re a genius!
Johnny Five- Well, above average.

 

And that’s running the OEM Deere concaves which aren’t the best thing around!

 

Filler plates up front will make it worse. Will thresh even more. Seperator grate covers are the right thing to try though. How slow is rotor? How open is concave ?

If anyone is looking for combine settings, always post what you are using now. Helps people reply with something to try.

 

Yes i realized that in a hurry just got told to try it , running my rotor minimum of 400- 500 this year due to the conditions over threshing , especially with the green stalks due to stripping that rotor fuse from low torque.
Clearance btw 25 -32 depending on the yield/material.

 

Sounds about right.
would take filler plates out
And try and extra sep grate cover of available

do you drop pans to check losses or ?

 

Yes planning to get a second grate cover to try . We do pans yes but from this year to last there’s a significant difference where last year I’ve been able to do .3 of a bushel @ 3mph in a 35-40 bu crop , but this year its double that or more! Also been slowing down to 2.5 - 2 on places !

 

Yes planning to get a second grate cover to try . We do pans yes but from this year to last there’s a significant difference where last year I’ve been able to do .3 of a bushel @ 3mph in a 35-40 bu crop , but this year its double that or more! Also been slowing down to 2.5 - 2 on places ! Which pan do you use total loss measurement or the spread smart pan ?

 

I don’t think I would be to worried about .6bu loss on a 50bu crop. IMO, just combine !

 

Good feedback thx, what are you getting for dockage in canola?

 

We have been shipping some last week. Anywhere from 1-3%. Mostly fines and weed seeds etc they tell me

 

Ok that sounds very much the same what we are doing with the stuff going in right off the combine

 

If it makes you feel any better, had a friend tell me his CR11 struggled in canola as well.

If this was Family Feud:
Survey Says!:
Top 2 answers on the board!
DING
All machines struggled in canola
DING
Response varies with tolerance to loss

 

There’s definitely some mixed reviews out there from different brand names and losses this year that’s forsure, it’s nice to compare and see what other guys are doing.

 

Seems its still hard to beat swathed canola for combine losses. No green material and when it turns hot and dry the seed moisture doesn't collapse right away.

 

I would normally agree with this as usually we get rain/higher humidity type conditions that make the swaths cure much better/faster too. Of course on those yrs we may get a hard frost by now that would make it better for the straight cut crowd as well. However, this yr because of no rain/lower humidity conditions than what we are used to actually find swaths not foolproof and drop pans behind 8.9 NH certainly showing that you can lose canola. So far the only general solution/ways to minimize this loss is by slowing down as this seems to be consistent with all colors of combines. FWIW - I am going 2.5mph on a 21'swath! Seed being over-dry is not the issue either as almost seems to be curing slower and coming down in moisture slower as well. Good thing we have not had high winds.

 

Haven’t had to swath down canola the last few years, with the late rains it was tempting.

 

With this gloomy canola harvesting talk someone should start a
“It was so much fun threshing peas, wheat and barley compared to last year!”
Plump seed, high sample density, great yields, all exactly the opposite of last years fight, in this area anyway.

 

Funny you mention that for us it was the opposite referring to density and the harvesting part of it , seed being not baked in the heads makes it a dream threshing and so on ! That was a challenge the last 3 years with the sweltering heat frying everything up but the late rains gave us a solid break this year.

 

All our crops were a dream to harvest. Peas stood like weve never seen before.... wheat was a breeze... canola was wonderful(ly) slow ..but for good reason.

Incredible the amount of powdery milder that moved into the standing stuff. Didnt seem to affect yield at all but everything covered in white tacky dust.

Almost done... ( 170 ac of faba beans).

An absolutely wonderful.. incredible fall. Wish they were all like this....

 

An absolutely wonderful.. incredible fall. Wish they were all like this....

Yes, but the whole season!

 

Rain, whats rain?

 

Well, showered out this afternoon.
First time this harvest.

Calgary on track to be the hottest, driest September ever.
And I don’t think they got sideswiped by this little system.

 

Again if it makes you feel better, 8700 is really struggling too. Never seen canola conditions like this, down to 2mph with a sample and losses that would be completely unacceptable most years. I’ve never seen conditions where changing so many internal things results in little to no difference.

 

These interesting conditions for this year must be leading up to a wet bumper 2026 🙏

 

Thats nice to hear.. 40 foot macdon and s680 OR 690 and cant get above 1.7 to 2 mph. Have changed eeeeevvverrything in multiple configurations.. doesnt seem to matter.
Thought maybe we were the only ones....

Ill assume that powdery mildew has kept the stems from drying down properly.

 

From “your the first one, you’re the only one” to
”Oh, you mean like everybody else?”

 

Been talking to guys from Alberta and Saskatchewan it’s looking like a widespread area with these same conditions from all the common brands out there ! Talking about the sticky powdery mildew there’s been multiple machines that burnt down overnight due to the crap setting up on hotspots , take 10 minutes to blow er off when shutting down.

 

I had it bad in some fields. I managed not to burn our combine down by lingering around after shut down and then spending an hour or more blowing the crap off every morning... especially around the engine. Anything that came in contact with forced air from the engine fan would cake up pretty good during the day. For the first time since I've started farming (25 years full time but probably more like 40 harvest's in total) I will need to spend time and completely pressure wash that **** off my combine, concentrating on the engine and radiators. Disgusting.

 

185cfm compressor takes about 10 minutes to clean off a combine.