[brazil08]

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.

 

[Don Boles]

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.

 

[goalieguy847]

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....

 

[Don Boles]

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

Yes, but the whole season!

 

[SW Sask Grain Farmer]

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.

Makes sense what you are saying there ! We’ve been able to wrap up harvest just in time now for the **** wind we getting.

 

[SW Sask Grain Farmer]

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.

 

[coolio]

Rain, whats rain?

 

[Don Boles]

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.

 

[SW Sask Grain Farmer]

Rain, whats rain?

It’s wet and if you get enough of it it’ll make grain which really made a difference this year. At some point it didn’t look like wele be getting a heck of alot of anything together but it payed off!

 

[Rf928]

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.

 

[goalieguy847]

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.

 

[Don Boles]

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

 

[SW Sask Grain Farmer]

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 🙏

 

[SW Sask Grain Farmer]

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.

 

[clb]

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.

 

[meskie]

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

 

[Daniel Stahl]

did it seem to you guys the different varieties canola had less mildew

 

[goalieguy847]

The taller varieties seemed " " to have less. They also yielded less. Put out more stems than pods.

Also.
We dont blow our combines off. I would love for them to burn down... i would rush some other stuff out to the field as well!

 

[SW Sask Grain Farmer]

The taller stuff like the Dekalb brands definitely was better for less mildew than the Invigors.

The reversible fan is really nice for keeping the engine compartment and area clean but it’s got nothing on that sticky crap !

 

[dumbfarmer]

10min a day with cordless leaf blower and your good to go. I actually have seen the crap setting on mufflers in mornings but if you open up the engine bays with machines running in day everything is spotless. But you have to blow stuff off occasionally or it starts to build up.