SASKATOON Ñ Recent research in Oregon suggests certain combine header modifications can reduce chickpea harvest loss by as much as 43 percent.
New generation stripper headers that were designed for pulse crops left no foreign material in the grain sample, kept stubble standing to catch snow and control erosion and allowed combines to travel faster with less wear.
However, the research did not address the quality of the grain samples taken from the different headers.
In 2004, the Wheatland Conservation Area prepared a demonstration of alternative harvesting techniques designed to improve the quality of pulse crops.
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WCA manager Bryan Nybo presented first-year results at Pulse Days 2005, held as part of Crop Production Week, which ran Jan. 10-14 in Saskatoon.
“We all know that seed quality in pulses continues to be a concern to producers, buyers and consumers,” he said.
“Foreign material, splits, dockage, poor and inconsistent colour are all undesirable in the marketplace.”
Nybo said delayed harvest can contribute to these factors and increase harvest losses.
“If we can improve harvesting, we can benefit consumers, buyers, processors and producers.”
The project had a number of objectives:
- Reduce harvest time and take advantage of the optimum harvest window.
“With pulse crops, that window is quite often small and narrow,” Nybo said.
“We want to reduce fuel and labour costs. We also want to improve seed quality and (reduce) mechanical damage. If we’re harvesting outside the optimum harvest window or if the crop is too dry or too ripe, we can get excessive amounts of seed coat damage and splitting.”
- Reduce or eliminate foreign material such as weed seeds, dirt and stones and improve seed colour.
“Harvesting outside the optimum harvest window, we can adversely affect our colour due to the effects of the sun, moisture, frost and things like that,” he said.
- Minimize harvest losses.
“There’s not much use improving everything else if we’re going to leave half of it out in the field. We also want to leave standing crop residues to prevent erosion and catch snow all winter long.”
The demonstration looked at three types of headers on lentil and chickpea plots: a Shelbourne Reynolds stripper header; a rigid straight-cut header with a pick-up reel; and a Victory pick-up header with swaths. The headers were mounted on the same Massey 550 combine to reduce variability.
The rigid straight-cut header cuts close to the ground, potentially collecting stones and dirt in the sample. It leaves virtually no stubble behind.
The Victory pick-up header has the potential for high losses, dirt and stones. Swaths can be blown around, causing losses, and little stubble is left behind.
“The (Shelbourn Reynolds) stripper header travels at greater speeds,” Nybo said.
“There’s no dirt or stones in the sample. We did five reps and had no dirt or rocks in any of the samples from the stripper header. We had two samples in both the straight-cut header and pick-up header with significant amounts of dirt in the sample.”
Yields, header loss and pre-harvest loss in lentils were comparable with all three headers. Nybo said he didn’t use the pick-up header for chickpeas because it’s not a common practice. There were virtually no losses and the yield was the same, though extremely low because of disease and frost.
“We did notice a difference in dockage,” he said. “The stripper header didn’t collect the small seeds and weed seeds as much as the straight-cut header did.”
Stubble height was 7.5 to 10 centimetres with the straight-cut header compared to 25 to 35.5 cm with a stripper header.
“There was a lot of residue, but the stubble was tall and it will prevent erosion and catch snow if there is snow,” he said.
“With lentils, there was virtually no ground cover where straight cut. With the stripper header, there was significantly more ground cover.”
Nybo said while there was little difference among the three header types Ñ in this situation there were little or no harvest losses Ñ there is a high potential for loss when swathing because wind can blow the swaths around.
The project received funding from Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and was assisted by Mark Stumborg of Agriculture Canada in Swift Current, Sask.
Nybo said harvest speed is greater with the stripper header.
“You have potential to improve seed quality. You may be able to harvest green crops, where the pods are ripened up, but the plants are quite green. You can maybe get in there a little bit earlier and take advantage of the harvest window.”
He said the stripper header also allows producers to keep harvest residues, harvest lodged crops and reduce wear on the combine.
“You’re not putting near as much product through the combine per acre. You may say that’s not good for a combine if you’re running a combine empty, but your travel speeds make up for that.”
Cost is the major disadvantage. Nybo said he thinks the cost is about 35 percent higher than a rigid straight-cut header.
“There’s no in-cab header adjustment for your rotor speed and you’re recropping into tall stubble.”
