Case IH Combine Settings for a Successful Soybean Harvest

hi my name is marion kelmer and stay
tuned because we’re going to talk about

combine settings for a successful

soybean harvest

using a red combine

today we’re going to talk about some

combine settings for a successful

soybean harvest

and we’re going to go through three

major areas we’re going to go and talk

about the

threshing concaves

we’re going to talk about the separating

grates and the third thing we’re going

to talk about

is the cleaning area of the combine now

this this old girl is about 25 years old

i’m 63 years old every day i learned

something new

about harvesting and i just want to pass

that along hopefully you’ll find some of

this information

of use today

and this year we’re seeing some

really tough conditions for cutting

beans i’ve got

green ones in the field that don’t want

to thresh

and i’ve got bone dry beans that readily

fall out of the pod

a successful soybean harvest starts

right here

in the rotor area and i need to focus

more in that area

than i used to and it’s making my

combine work better

every day so combines

are are designed at the factory

regardless of color whether they’re red

green yellow or gray they are designed

for maximum flow because we’re going to

harvest corn

and we’ve got to be able to get 200 300

bushel corn drop

through the rotor area and get it into

the cleaning area

but we all switch back and forth and

then we jump over to soybeans

and years past i never even opened up

the side of the combine

i’d just go reset the sieves and the air

speed and

take off and i was never happy but today

when we switch from corn to beans or now

we’re

set up now where we’ve got one combine

devoted specifically just to cut beans

and i’ve got a red combine devoted just

to shell corn

and i i’ve got to go into this machine

and i’ve got to make some adjustments

i’ve got to tighten things up to get

them to thresh

i’ve got to be able to tighten things up

to keep from overloading

the cleaning system because it can’t

handle all of the fodder that comes out

of a soybean plant

so this is a threshing concave this is a

large wire

that it’s very common been used for many

many many many years

and when the soybean plant comes

into the rotor area these pods are going

to come off of the stem most of them

will not all of them

and they’re going to come into this

threshing

concave and because it’s so open for

corn

these pods are going to drop right

through

now do it again because it’s just so

common sense this hole is very large

and this bean is very small and it drops

right through and it doesn’t get

thrashed it goes on to the auger bed

and it goes back and then we’re

tightening the bottom sieve

we’re running a lot of return we’re

trying to rethrash

and it just isn’t going to work so

years ago people came up with this

concept even my dad talked about it when

i was a kid

of cover plates and we’ve got one slid

underneath

this large wire concave what the cover

plate does

is stops the material from dropping

through the large wires

and holds it into this chamber so that

we can now

rub pods against pods

and that’s how we’re going to get them

to open up and you can see

they’re going to fill this area in and

they’re going to rub against each other

so i’m increasing the performance of my

combine

i’m increasing the threshing power of my

combine regardless of color

so that i don’t have to send that pod

back for a

second pot second pass so

some of the other combines have rethresh

systems in them and and so on and so

forth

i’ll pass along a bit of information

came from my grandfather to my dad down

to me

if you do it right the first time you

don’t have to redo it

i want to thrash the pod the first time

it comes through the machine

that way i don’t have to deal with it

the second time around so

you can get cover plates from

abilene machine and they have them for

red combines green combines

and i bought mine a long time ago that

initial installation

is something hopefully you will do

during the off season

and then when it comes time to cut beans

you just slip that plate in there snap

it in

ready to fly i i

i can also talk a little bit about

threshing concave inserts um

on green combines i don’t think that’s
05:42
aggressive enough and we’ll have a video
05:44
for you on on green ones
05:46
green combines about how to get them to
05:48
perform as well
05:49
so cover plates are an absolute must i’m
05:52
running two of them
05:54
so that means i’m covering about the
05:55
first 12 or 13 inches
05:57
of the threshing concave and then
06:00
i’m going to start to open things up and
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let them fall on down through
06:05
now if it gets real bone dry then i’m
06:08
going to step
06:09
in there and i’m going to pull one of
06:10
the cover plates out and just use one
06:13
but
06:13
on that first dry down green beans i’m
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running two plates
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12 inches regardless of color 12 inches
06:20
solid steel make them rub against each
06:23
other then we’re going to start to open
06:24
it up a little bit more as we move
06:26
through the threshing area
06:28
and we should be good to go
06:35
[Music]
06:38
second thing i want to talk about is the
06:41
separating
06:42
area and that’s going to be the back
06:44
half
06:46
of the rotor area behind the firewall
06:50
and now we start to change the shape
06:53
of the grates that are used in the
06:56
separating area
06:58
this combine has two options it has the
07:00
square bar
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or key stock grate which is pretty
07:04
common from the factory
07:05
and then as you read through the owner’s
07:07
manual it talks about the
07:10
slotted separating grates
07:13
and again this is going to close it up
07:16
a little bit more and the reason that i
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want to do that
07:20
is because i don’t want to let all of
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the thrashed material drop
07:26
into the auger bed because now i’m going
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to have an
07:29
over loaded chaffer
07:32
and that’s very common regardless of
07:34
color i got too much material to deal
07:36
with in the cleaning area
07:38
and it should have stayed up here in the
07:39
rotor area and it should have gone
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right on out the back of the combine so
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i don’t want to dump this
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ground up green silage down
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onto the auger bed and onto the sieves
07:52
and you can look in here
07:54
on a close-up and you can see the
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separating area
07:58
some of the uh the green pods are
08:02
are still hooked to the stem they’re
08:05
open the lima beans are gone
08:06
and they’re gonna go right on out
08:08
through the rotor and right into the
08:09
straw chopper
08:11
so want to tighten that up in that area
08:14
a little bit as well also this combine
08:18
we have the luxury
08:19
of being able to adjust in the top part
08:22
of the rotor cage
08:24
transport veins we’re going to stand
08:27
them vertical for corn
08:28
because we want to keep from getting
08:30
into rotor loss and in soybeans
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we’re going to advance them we’re going
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to kick the straw out of the combine as
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quickly as possible
08:36
i use an air ratchet i blow that area
08:40
out and an air ratchet with a deep well
08:42
9 16
08:43
socket sip them loose spin them to the
08:45
advance tighten them down i do that
08:47
between
08:47
corn and soybeans because it is an
08:50
unbelievable
08:51
change in the performance of this 25
08:54
year old combine
08:55
and the new red combines come out of the
08:57
factory now off the assembly line
08:59
they have a button in the cab you can
09:01
rotate those veins from corn
09:03
to soybeans phenomenal change in
09:06
performance
09:07
i get more horsepower i get less crap in
09:09
the tank
09:10
it’s just an unbelievable uh enhancement
09:13
to this this machine
09:14
so my job as the combine
09:18
operator not a driver i’m an operator
09:22
when i switch over to beans i’m a
09:24
balancing act
09:25
and i want to keep as much as i can up
09:27
in that rotor area
09:29
without getting any rotor loss i always
09:32
watch my monitor if i get things too
09:33
tight
09:34
i’ll start to trickle beans out the
09:35
rotor if i’ve got them too loose
09:37
i’m going to overload the cleaning
09:39
system so it’s a balancing act
09:41
to make sure i get maximum performance
09:44
out of the two main areas
09:45
of anybody’s rotary machine
09:50
[Music]
09:57
the cleaning area i used to struggle
10:00
with that one
10:01
all the time red combines especially the
10:04
older ones are notorious for dirty grain
10:06
tanks
10:06
and this is why because the rotor’s not
10:08
set correctly but as we get to the
10:10
cleaning area
10:11
if i’ve done my homework and i’ve got
10:14
the right
10:15
concaves and the the the separating
10:17
grates and i’ve got the veins adjusted
10:20
it’s just a walk in the park uh to set
10:23
the sieves
10:24
and to get a clean sample in the tank
10:27
and to use the correct amount of errors
10:29
so
10:30
from my original days i used to spend my
10:33
time adjusting sieves and fans
10:36
today i spend my energy and my time in
10:39
the rotor area when i go from corn to
10:41
beans
10:42
and to be quite honest we don’t really
10:44
have to do much adjusting
10:46
to the sieves a little tip
10:50
in the cleaning area is to look in the
10:52
grain tank and if you’re not happy with
10:54
the sample
10:56
and it’s just common sense take time to
10:59
look at the sample in the tank
11:02
is the foreign matter that’s in there is
11:04
is that object
11:05
larger than the soybean or is it smaller
11:10
than the soybean if it’s larger than the
11:12
soybean that means i need to tighten
11:14
up the sieves if that material is
11:16
smaller than the soybean
11:18
the only way it’s going to leave the
11:19
combine is in the airstream
11:22
so that’s another little tip that we’ve
11:23
been passing along this year
11:25
getting a lot of calls and occasionally
11:28
people will call
11:29
in got maximum air i’ve got the sieve
11:31
white open and i’m still getting beans
11:33
out the back of the combine
11:34
telling me one thing i got them too far
11:37
open i’m getting way too much material
11:39
i’m asking way too much out of that
11:41
cleaning area
11:42
to to separate it all and it’s just a
11:45
chain of events
11:46
and so what i tell everybody i said the
11:48
first thing go take that sieve shut it
11:50
all the way down
11:51
start over and then just reopen it and
11:53
it’ll clean right up it’s amazing
11:55
so with that i hope you’ve enjoyed the
11:58
information
12:00
as always feel free to send me a text
12:03
message
12:04
or you can call me send me a photo
12:08
any of those things i’m i’m happy to
12:09
help you my cell phone number’s 309
12:16
368-1182
12:17
i may not always get to it right away
12:19
but eventually i will get you called but
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before i go to bed at night
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and or call me early the next morning
12:25
and
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we’ll kick around a few ideas and i
12:28
guarantee you
12:29
we’re going to get your combine to run
12:31
the way it’s supposed to
12:32
so that you can have a successful
12:35
soybean
12:36
harvest and you can have a lot of fun
12:38
doing it
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with that i want to say thanks for
12:40
watching the video and have a safe
12:42
and fun harvest