Challenges During Soybean Harvest

Fall harvest is here and in this episode we discuss adjusting combine settings, measuring field and harvest losses, and ensuring the safe operation of equipment. 

Publications mentioned in the podcast are PM 573: Profitable Soybean Harvesting, PM 574: Profitable Corn Harvesting, and PM 1636: Soybean Harvesting and Drying. 

Transcript

Tony Mensing: 0:00

Music. Hello and welcome to the Engineering Your Farm podcast. Welcome back to a new season of engineering your farm. Today, This podcast is produced by the Iowa State University Extension we're going to have Dan Anderson Dr manure with us and discuss a and Outreach field agricultural engineering team. timely topic about soybean harvest and green beans and some of the issues that we may encounter as we're going through harvest this year. Welcome Dan. Good to have you today.

Dan Andersen: 0:57

Thanks Tony, and great to be here. Great to see another season of engineering your farm back and since you're new to the show, I thought it'd be a great chance to hear a little bit more about you. Tell us who you are and what you do.

Tony Mensing: 1:07

Yeah, I'm Tony Mensing. I'm the field ag engineer with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach located in southwest Iowa. So I serve 20 counties in that corner of the state and work on all things ag engineering, as does the rest of our team. So grew up in that area, have a family and live there now, and have close ties to ag, and am a Iowa Stater at heart, and love engineering. So all kinds of good fun to be had here.

Dan Andersen: 1:35

That's great. And I know I've been really excited to have you on our team, and super excited to see this podcast come back, and even more excited to not be talking about manure. Certainly, I love it, but it's always nice to branch out a little bit. And I'm excited to learn a little bit more about combine settings, setting up for doing a soybean harvest and and what some of the field field conditions might mean for us. So happy to talk with you today, and look forward to learning a little bit more as we go.

Tony Mensing: 1:59

Yeah, I appreciate you coming in, and like you said, taking a break from manure that's important as ever. But we're getting into the thick of harvest this year, so good time to talk about soybean harvest, especially. And one thing that always comes to mind is soybean moisture. It's a ever ending challenge.

Dan Andersen: 2:16

All right, so let's start there. What's the moisture we're looking for? How do I know I'm there. Get me started.

Tony Mensing: 2:23

Generally speaking, 13% moisture on soybeans is the target if you're either gonna store them at home or elsewhere, or take them for sale or storage in a commercial facility. So one thing I will mention on that front is that wherever they're going, if they're going to a commercial facility, it's pertinent to check with them and see what their grain policy is. They change those periodically. And not everyone is the same. Their discount schedules are not necessarily the same. Some interpolate between the moisture cutoff. Some cut off and truncate there. So if you're a 10th over, then you're in the next category. Without having that information, it's hard to know for sure what your target is, right?

Dan Andersen: 3:08

And that's our goal, 13% but what range are we willing to live with? How high can I get? How dry can I get?

Tony Mensing: 3:15

A lot of that depends on your tolerance to put up with trying to go when they're too wet, and what that does to your harvest system. If you're going to store them at home, we need to be pretty particular about making sure that we get the moisture to an acceptable level to not have storage issues. If we're taking them for sale at a commercial facility, then our downfall to too wet or too dry is economics.

Dan Andersen: 3:42

So soybeans dry in the field. Why would I harvest them? What? What's the pressure to get done, get started and deal with some of these moisture challenges.

Tony Mensing: 3:49

You hear people talk about beans that are too dry every year, right? That's one reason that we want to think about getting out there, maybe on the wetter side, or getting a start. If we start at optimum. We've only got, generally speaking, one way to go. They can't pick up some moisture again. Depends on the weather and those kind of factors as we're going through the fall. But if we wait till they're we're at 13% trending drier, then we're gonna be giving up water weight.

Dan Andersen: 4:18

So we give up some water weight. Are there other challenges of harvest if soybeans get too dry?

Tony Mensing: 4:23

Certainly. So if we have really dry potted beans, we're susceptible to a lot more loss from our harvest equipment, right? So if they're dry, and the pods are dry, they come out of their pod really easily as we're running the machine through the field, bumping those bean plants, as we're harvesting them, some of those pods are going to open, we're going to have a lot more shatter loss.

Dan Andersen: 4:47

Is there a way to measure shatter loss, or what you're encountering and what that means in terms of what I'm actually collecting for harvest efficiency?

Tony Mensing: 4:54

There's certainly a way to measure field loss, harvest loss, all those things. And. And I don't know that that ever gets enough credit as we're thinking about harvest. If we want to know whether we're doing a good job, bad job or not, everybody's level of acceptance is going to be the same on what they're comfortable losing due to field conditions. But if we don't know what we're losing, it's hard to make informed decision about whether or not we're in the range that's acceptable to us or not.

Dan Andersen: 5:24

Could you walk me through a way to do this? I'm a novice at harvesting. I think about putting nutrients on a lot more. But the other day, I did get forwarded a video of a canola harvest, and a guy threw a trash can lid out underneath, basically the combine as he was going along and and was measuring how much grain was left in there, from what I could tell, is that really what people are doing?

Tony Mensing: 5:44

Essentially, yeah. So Iowa State Extension has some good information that you can find for helping you step through that process, but essentially, you're going to measure how many beans don't make it into the storage tank on the combine, right? So one thing that doesn't always get looked at is we generally have some field loss ahead of combining, so especially, maybe not as much at this point in the season, but as we get later into the season and have some of the wetting and drying and wetting and drying cycles, some of the pods naturally open up. That's what plants do to reseed themselves, right? So we spent a lot of time breeding soybeans and getting them to fit our system, but they still will open and lose some soybeans onto the ground. So if we're measuring for our harvest loss after we've combined, we're going to see all the beans that were lost before we ran our combine through the field, right? So if we don't know what was lost before we harvested, it's hard to know how much more damage we're doing on the loss front with the machine itself.

Dan Andersen: 6:52

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, you get some measurement, but it's a cumulative measurement. It's hard to separate the two of them from each other, which is unfortunate, but the way the world works some days.

Tony Mensing: 7:01

Right, right. And it's, it's hard to do that after the fact, but before we harvest, you can go out and basically find an area and use an area of the field, small area, like I said, the extension outreach has some publications that can help walk you through that. But you find a known area and count the soybean seeds in that area, and do the math, which I love, to find out how much yield that actually would be for that field. So as long as you're doing that before you harvest, then you can separate the pieces, right? You can't go back after the fact and know.

Dan Andersen: 7:35

Perfect. All right, so you told me we're aiming for 13% and every year I hear people start telling me I have green stems, green pods. What does that mean? And what are some things I can do to try and make that goes for my machine a little bit easier.

Tony Mensing: 7:49

Have you ever tried to get a soybean out of a green pod, Dan?

Dan Andersen: 7:53

Of course I have. Just the other day, I took my daughter to a soybean field. She's three, and of course, she wanted to know what a soybean was. The pods were still pretty green, and dad had to open up the pod for her and then I scratched the bean because it's hard to open, and she wanted to know why the bean had a scratch on it.

Tony Mensing: 8:08

That's fun. Yeah, was it a challenge to get the pod open?

Dan Andersen: 8:12

Yes, it was hard.

Tony Mensing: 8:13

Right? So those green potted beans are a challenge to get open harvest today at its at its core is not different than it's been for hundreds of years, right? We're trying to separate the seed from the rest of the plant material. So we have a lot more technology and bigger equipment to help us do that today than we've had in the past, but we're doing on a large scale what you did with your daughter. We're rubbing that pod and trying to get it to crack open and get those soybeans out right. So takes more energy to do that with a green podded bean. So we can squeeze harder, we can squeeze faster or a longer duration, basically, are kind of the options that we have. So those settings are things that we can adjust in our machine, with our concave setting, either widening or narrowing, that setting to adjust as we're as we're working through the soybeans. Even during the day we may have, may have changes throughout the day. We can also adjust the rotor speed and how fast we're turning that rotor is is going to affect how much force were, how much rubbing we're going to do on those soybean pods to get them to open and let the soybeans out. There are also some some mechanical parts on that rotor that can be adjusted to help with that. There are veins on the concaves themselves that dictate how many, how many rotations that material goes around the rotor as we're threshing those beans and getting them to open. So if they're hard to get open, they may need a few more turns in that rotor to have enough time to get them to actually open. So there are settings there. Are also some limitations where we may not be able to adjust in a reasonable manner to make the machine do what you want it to do and be acceptable what you're getting in the tank or what you're leaving in the field, right? So what we have today with the technology and the options to adjust is tremendous and fits a wide variety of crops we we spend a lot of time thinking about a couple crops here in Iowa, right? But the machines can do all kinds of other things and work over a wide range, and do a really good job for us. If we look at the product we're getting, go back and and take an analysis of what we're actually leaving in the field, so we know if we're if we're getting what we want to get in the tank, what we're leaving behind. It does allow us to work over a wide range, but that doesn't mean it's infinite, right? There's still, there's still a point where it simply is not going to be acceptable for you.

Dan Andersen: 10:54

Yeah. So I think that was really helpful for me. So if it's green beans, we probably want to squeeze them a little harder, try and rub the pod a little bit firmer, try and get it to open up. And you mentioned, like moisture conditions can vary throughout the day, definitely throughout the season, but as we think about progressing a little bit more in the season, one of the things that we always see and actually did, is we'd wait until the dew came off to try and get to a more palatable moisture content. And that's sort of what you're talking about, we could find a way to work through it, as long as we're in that range. Alright, so that helps me a lot with working through some of the machine settings for when we have green beans. My next question for you is, I have some perennial ground cover plots, and while I've done some pod counts, and they look pretty similar to me, I really want to make sure I get the same yield. And those beans are a little short. It's over really close to the ground. What should I do?

Tony Mensing: 11:40

Short beans can be a challenge, right? So if the pods are full, and there's lots of them, that's great, but they only count if we can get them into the tank. So we're going to want to make sure that we're working with that cutter bar adjusted as close to the ground as we can run it without causing other additional issues. So the closer we get it to the ground, the more dirt that we contend with. And some parts of the state, some areas we may have rocks as an issue also. So that turns into kind of a fine balance, but we want to basically cut them off as close to the ground as we can safely cut them off to save all those pods that you counted and need to have for your plots.

Dan Andersen: 12:17

Perfect. One of the other things that I wanted to touch on as we go through the season, and beans get do get drier. What equipment adjustment should I be thinking about then, in terms of speed and what I'm doing to make sure that I don't have that shatter loss?

Tony Mensing: 12:29

Sure, yeah, the beans are going to shatter more as the pods get drier. So anytime, anytime that that plant gets disturbed, or those pods get disturbed, we've have a potential issue for the pod to split open and lose those beans out. So where we want that to happen is actually in the machine, right? So the less interaction, the less the less handling of those plants we can have before getting it into the threshing part of the combine itself, the better off we're going to be, as far as not having more harvest loss from that machine. So one of the major interaction points on a soybean combine is the reel that helps keep those plants falling into the header itself. So whether it's an auger header or draper header, the reel is there to help make sure that those plants are falling back onto that grain table so they can feed into the machine there. So if it operates as we would intend generally, that reel just kind of sets down in that canopy and helps make sure that those plants fall back onto that grain table. So we do that by varying the depth that it's setting down into that canopy as well as the speed at which it turns so would normally want to have that kind of all match to your ground speed, so it just is there as a support, not really pushing or pulling on those plants. That way we're doing the least amount of disturbance to them that we can do and still make sure they fall into the header.

Dan Andersen: 13:56

Now, when we had green beans, that was less of a concern. So when we're at this 13% ish moisture, maybe a little higher, get closer, but as you get to some of those drier bean conditions, much bigger deal.

Tony Mensing: 14:07

Sure, yeah, your tolerance is less for that disturbance, right? So we can have some dry beans with green stems and green pods that are their own issue, right, like we talked about. But the other thing that is important as we're threshing through those beans on this topic, is making sure that we are feeding them evenly. So that's part of what that reel is there to do, is to make sure they feed evenly. So if we get back to some of the the other extreme, we're talking dry and we want to have the least amount of disturbance on a on a wet plant, a wet stem, wet pod plant, the more even we can feed that into the combine, the more consistent we're going to have our threshing in that machine.

Dan Andersen: 14:54

So when you think about evenness of feed and capacity of the machine as we're moving through the field, and we see some of these regions of variation. Maybe I have a pothole where it's just not as good. What are you telling me to do there? Speed up and try and push more through the machine. What's your best tips to try and get uniform feet, or at least good threshing there?

Tony Mensing: 15:11

Like all things engineering, there's a there's a balance there, right? So if we go too fast, when we're driving around looking in the countryside, we see a nice field of beans that's been cut. We may see some some plants that have stood back up after that harvest crews been through there a day or two ago, and they're not going to be standing up straight like they were before. But if we're driving too fast, we may miss getting some of those cut off. So we would want to try to maximize the throughput of the machine in those areas. Try and run it full, because we want to have it working at its capacity and doing as good a job as it can do. But we also don't want to overdrive that cutter bar to the point that we're not doing a good job getting those plants cut off, because just like your short beans, if we're leaning them over, it's going to be really hard to get the bottom part of that stem cut off close to the ground.

Dan Andersen: 16:02

And then one of the things I always see this time of year, because it's really exciting on social media, is when we have a combine fire. What's causing those? Where do they come from? What do we need to do to try and avoid that situation?

Tony Mensing: 16:14

Every situation is different on those but generally speaking, combines have a lot of moving parts, a lot of heat sources. Harvest can be really dusty. If we have the dust and the debris and the plant material build up on that machine, we run the risk of having a fire with that combine. So lots of factors play a part there, but if we do a good job kind of trying to maintain, keep it clean, keep the soybean fuzz off of the exhaust area the motor the places that are going to be hot. Try and mitigate that risk of having the combustible materials at the heat sources in the places where we could cause a fire to start.

Dan Andersen: 16:55

And then some other safety tips. I mean, this is a time when people work long hours removing heavy equipment full loads on the road. What? What are things we can be doing thinking about?

Tony Mensing: 17:03

The biggest thing is to be thinking, right? So when we're when we're harvesting, we're moving around using the same roadways that other people that aren't doing what we're doing are using. there could be a big speed difference between us as a harvest crew and the other drivers on that road. That bigger difference in speed is a potential issue for a problem. We also have big equipment right so that causes its own set of potential issues. Be cognizant. Be aware. Be aware of your surroundings and work within some constraints that have safety at the forefront of your mind. And you mentioned long hours, it's easy for people to get caught up in harvest. It's a stressful time of year. It's important we worked all year to get here, but we also need to take care of ourselves to make sure that we're in good shape to see harvest through.

Dan Andersen: 18:01

Perfect. So I think I'm going to recap a few things I heard today. One is know your moisture content and how that impacts your ability to thresh the bean seed, and also what that means in terms of cutting beans and getting the machine to capacity. We talked a little bit about losses and ways to measure our field losses, both before we get out there to harvest what's already been lost, and then our harvest efficiency loss, and making sure we're using that information to calibrate the machine, and then a little bit about safety. Here, of things we can do to make sure we're we're getting the machine in its best condition, staying safe as a harvester and as a harvest crew. And do you have any other tips that you think you want to leave us with us today?

Tony Mensing: 18:38

Yeah, that's, spot on, Dan. So in addition to that, I just would throw out that we have from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach some publications that help help people see some of the information that we've been talking about here. So Iowa State University Extension outreach has some publications that can help provide additional resources in this area. There's PM 1636 Soybean Harvesting and Drying. We also have, PM 573 Profitable Soybean Harvesting as well as PM 574 Profitable Corn Harvesting. So great information to Dan. I appreciate you being on. Thanks for joining the Engineering Your Farm podcast with me. Once again. My name is Tony Mensing. I'm the field ag engineer in southwest Iowa. If you have additional questions or comments on this topic, feel free to reach out to me or the rest of the Ag Engineering Extension and Outreach Team here at Iowa State University, and we look forward to having you on for another podcast in the future. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For the full non-discrimination statement or accommodation inquiries. Go to www.extension.iastate.edu/diversity/ext.

Unknown: 19:50

Music