BRANDON Ñ Some producers won’t combine at night because their yields drop too much after the sun sets. At least that’s what their yield monitors tell them.
Farmers who believe their monitors logically assume that shutting down the combine when the sun goes down is the right move.
But those who sometimes question what’s on the screen might ask why some combines perform well at night while others experience a decline of 10-20 bushels per acre.
Greg Setter of Russell, Man., questions the performance of the electronics as much as the performance of the combine.
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Setter works in the electronics business and has established his own company, Setter Manufacturing. He deals with electronics issues regularly.
“My previous combine had a 95 amp alternator,” said Setter.
“When I turned on all the lights, it needed 128 amps. That, in itself, explains the false numbers on the monitor.”
On his new CX combine, Setter installed an RV deep cycle battery along with an RV isolator, to give him a power source independent of the combine’s electrical system.
“During the daytime running hours, both batteries get charged up. Once the lights go on, all my electronics then run off that isolated deep cycle battery.
“It doesn’t matter what happens in my combine’s electrical system; my electronics are independent.”
As added protection, he installed a voltage conditioner to smooth out power spikes. It is similar to a power bar many people have in their homes to protect electrical appliances.
Setter said he still gets huge fluctuations in the combine’s electrical system, but they don’t affect the electronics. If he needs more power, his next step would be to install an auxiliary alternator.
“I can’t say for sure that the new setup is a 100 percent because we had frost damage throughout the farm in 2004 and that gave us very erratic yields. But I can say for sure that on the previous combine, we had fluctuations of 10-20 bu. at night and those yield maps were pure garbage,” he said.
“This voltage fluctuation issue might explain why some farmers have given up on yield mapping. It might also explain the practice of smoothing the yield maps to get rid of the bumps.”
Setter emphasizes that smoothing negates the concept of site-specific farming.
The alternator might have been the culprit all along.
