My columns are about older machinery and I tend to write for older people.
For them, a normal tractor is one that is shifted manually, and they think synchronizers are a big improvement.
They are used to combines that have to be set on the outside of the machine after the operator has scratched on the ground to read the losses and checked the hopper for a clean sample.
They are used to setting the sieves and prying on the concave because it is rusted into place.
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They are used to hard, physical work running their equipment.
They might own some of the biggest and best gear that money can buy but still can’t believe that a combine can do 20,000 bushels in an eight hour day.
First of all, they haven’t heard of an eight hour day during harvest, and secondly, at that rate the machinery would harvest in a few hours the size of farm they were familiar with when they started farming.
Yes we have come a long way.
There are tractors out there that will shift up or down by themselves as the load changes.
There are combines that will read crop conditions, yields and losses and allow the operator to set the sieves and concave from the cab. They store this information on a disk or flash drive so that it can be entered into the seeder and sprayer and adjust the feed rate on that particular spot.
Car makers have nothing on farm equipment builders.
But there are some things that never change.
Grain is still threshed using the same principle as the flail used in separating the grain from heads. Seeds and chaff are still exposed to the wind as it has been done for thousands of years.
We argue that this machine runs its cylinder faster, but truth be told, the peripheral speed stays exactly the same because that’s what it takes to thresh grain.
Machines become bigger with more area to do the work and more automation to make our lives easier.
They said that about the machines of the 1960s and the 1970s and will likely continue to do so long after most equipment is fully automated.
It’s true that we had too much moisture last year, but we have had that before.
We lived through it and have grown a lot of grain and will do so again.
So cheer up. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Problem with straw on the shoe
Q:I have an 860 Massey self propelled combine and am having trouble with the long straw staying on the sieves. How can I prevent this from happening. – David J.
A:I am not surprised that there is straw. The question is how much.
Some straw will always filter through between the walkers, depending on whether the walkers are slowed by a slipping belt. A belt that is glazed because of slipping can be rubbed with a little brake fluid and it will work just fine again.
What concerns me is that straw is lying on top of the shoe.
There are two things to check: do you have a lot of losses over the shoe and is the return elevator full of unthreshed material?
I suspect you might have decided the sample was too dirty and closed your cleaning sieves. This cleaned up the sample but created two other problems.
It gave you too much return and worst of all, it stopped the air from getting through the cleaning sieves to get to the top of the shoe. Nothing was there to blow the straw away.
You might say, “I closed them because of a dirty sample. I can’t have that.”
I suggest you open up the cleaning sieves so that everything you combine goes into the hopper. Now you should set the threshing area.
You will likely have to put in some concave blanks. Do the best job you can with this and then set the shoe.
Put the Peterson sieve in front of the bottom sieve if necessary and open the front of the top sieve.
Now set the wind to the front and blow that straw out.
Guenter has published his Inside Machines columns in one handy reference book, Henry’s Hints.
It is available for $30 in a ring-bound edition or $10 for a digital PDF. E-mail insidemachines@producer.com to contact Guenter with machinery questions or to order his book.
Henry Guenter is a former service manager for Massey Ferguson. Contact:
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