The new season brings huge responsibilities for the farmer and the biggest one is to make the harvest profitable. The combine concaves are so named because they perform three vital functions, threshing, reaping, and separating. But, one can experience many kinds of losses such as rotor loss. One can bring down rotor loss in harvesters only by switching to a superior concave system. Does one look for any other things in a concave system?
Important Things to Check in a Concave System
A wise farmer examines the good points of any concave system. The things to look for in the top combine concaves are as follows:
1. The concave must suit all crops.
2. Ground speed should be 2-3 times more than that of conventional harvesters.
3. The harvester must have 65-70% more capacity.
4. It should have good grain flow.
5. It works well with the top models such as Case IH and John Deere.
One Concave for All Crops
This helps save time and effort between crops. And by using the same concave all the time, the farmer gets a better feel of his machine helping him make the right fine-adjustments for each crop.
Improved Ground Speed
The contact time needed with the crop gets reduced because the concaves need less clearance. The threshing drum beats the cut crop with efficiency to remove the grain from the stalks. You don’t have to unplug the machine and can keep on harvesting.
Capacity Should get Enhanced
The angle of the concaves has a design to improve the threshing area with better contact. In typical combine concaves, grain loss is as high as 10-20%. By improving the threshing area, it is possible to improve capacity by 60% or more.
Concave System with a Good Crop Flow
Improved crop flow eliminates plugging. The unwanted chaff gets removed along conveyors designed to help improve grain movement. Effective threshing reduces fines, splits, and cracks by improving material-on-material contact.
Compatible with Top Harvester Models
Make sure you use those concave systems that are compatible with top harvesters like Case IH and John Deere. The grain flow is better in these models and increases harvest speeds by 5-10% at least.
Types of Grain Loss
The grain loss occurs at every stage of the harvesting process. They remain grouped as:
● Pre-harvest losses
● Set-up losses
● Machine losses
Pre-harvest losses happen due to natural reasons such as shedding. We can make this lossless by choosing a crop type with good genetics. The set-up losses will include every loss you suffer up to the harvesting stage.
The machine losses happen due to the design of the harvester. Here is where one can prevent losses by using well-designed combine concaves systems. If you sow 100 kg/hectare, the average grain loss is as follows:
1. Wheat – 27.2
2. Chickpeas – 6.2
3. Barley – 22.9
4. Red lentils – 32.8
5. Oats – 29
Less cracked or damaged grains improves the yield. You can do this by using superior concave systems that enhance the grain flow.
Use the best concave systems to outdo what you did last year. This is possible through the use of the latest technology and state-of-the-art analytic software. If you do, you get better grain quality along with lower grain losses.