Does combining grain maize play havoc with the combine?

[Stewie]

I agree with what you say.
That said I would think that grain maize harvested in most parts of the world would combined at a lower moisture content than in the uk and perhaps Northern Europe.

The recommendation is to harvest between 25 and 28% here.

 

[ollie989898]

When I was looking at getting a combine I toyed with the idea of bringing one from South Africa as they seemed cheap and they had maize headers however when I looked into it I decided against as they have very dry winters which allows a single combine to harvest big acreages of maize so they run up big hours but the maize wears the metal very thin. It isn’t unusual to see machines that had averaged 800 hours a year. They harvest dry crops but the wear on them is high. I’ve harvested rice in California with an axial flow and as Roy says that’s hard on a combine because you’re putting a lot of wet stuff through the machine it’s a bit like harvesting a heavy green strawed wheat crop at 30 per cent moisture.

Rice would look to be the ideal crop for a stripper header to gather as you wouldn't be picking up any of that green straw. It must be murder on combines to cut.

Of course with maize the average yield is a bit higher than wheat as well so per clock hour a combine would potentially be handling a fair bit more actual grain.

 

[Lowland1]

Rice would look to be the ideal crop for a stripper header to gather as you wouldn't be picking up any of that green straw. It must be murder on combines to cut.

Of course with maize the average yield is a bit higher than wheat as well so per clock hour a combine would potentially be handling a fair bit more actual grain.

Shelbourne-Reynolds’s sell a lot of stripper headers for rice in the States. I remember using a new Case 1680 in rice and struggling to go over 1 mph and listening in fear as the rotor kept whomping and slowing up.

 

[ollie989898]

Shelbourne-Reynolds’s sell a lot of stripper headers for rice in the States. I remember using a new Case 1680 in rice and struggling to go over 1 mph and listening in fear as the rotor kept whomping and slowing up.

Can you imagine cutting rice in a rotary lexion, holy fudge. At least the modern axial flows let you reverse the rotor.

 

[Lowland1]

Can you imagine cutting rice in a rotary lexion, holy fudge. At least the modern axial flows let you reverse the rotor.

Lexions are quite popular for rice these days might be because of the tracks. If you’ve spent days clunking along on metal track’s and stamping on the brakes whenever you want to turn then terra tracs would be a revelation.

 

[SRRC]

I'm just down the road from Oscar and have grown grain maize for years. What he says is spot on!
I've used JD combines, a heavier concave is vital, Nichols is ideal, because normal wires don't last. Otherwise all the settings will be in the book. Damp beard makes a mess of the innards, otherwise pray for a crispy dry spell!
I'm selling my 6 row snapper header if anyone is interested.
The key to making it work financially is to have a use for the 25% grain, drying it is expensive. In my case I milled it into a clamp and from there into the pig wet feed system.
That mill is for sale as well.

 

[Flatlander]

Can you imagine cutting rice in a rotary lexion, holy fudge. At least the modern axial flows let you reverse the rotor.

Lexion s are so much better at dealing with the higher moisture than an axial flow. Lexion failing was the transition from the impeller to the rotors. My 480 was never an issues at the rotors were further apart but my 595 in green stem soybeans will make you cry Even if canola has green stems it rumbles a lot. With the short material involved cutting rice I can see no problem. Terra trac and mud hog hydraulic drive steering axles will virtually walk on water. Please don’t ask how I know. Rather forget those years.

 

[Pilatus]

Yes
Next question

Do maize cobs that are grown for the grain, cook and more importantly eat ok ?
Pic attached of one I picked yesterday.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Do maize cobs that are grown for the grain, cook ok ?
Pic attached of one I picked yesterday.

no

nearly all varieties of corn are grown for specific end uses, wether it’s for stock feed or industrial use or snack foods or . . .

“sweet corn” is bred specifically for sweetness & eating

you could cook & eat any variety of corn if you wanted, but it wouldn’t taste anywhere near as good as proper sweet corn

Years ago I worked on an irrigation farm here, our 2 main summer crops were cotton & corn ( maize - mainly grown under contract to frito - lay, for snack foods. Corn chips, Doritos, those sort of things )
Anyway, the boss had a bag of sweet corn seed & every year we’d plant a row of sweet corn for our own consumption. Nothing better than fresh sweet corn

 

[Wisconsonian]

Over mature sweet corn starts to taste like field corn. You can eat field corn, but that is way too late. Incomprehensible to even think about eating sweet corn this time of year. Unless it came from FL or Australia.

Roy and I are assuming you mean boiled and covered with butter and salt. If you mean some other way of processing fresh corn, that's possible.

edit: "fresh" STARCHY corn, that ear will be starchy, tough and getting hard. Which is fine if that's what you need.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Over mature sweet corn starts to taste like field corn. You can eat field corn, but that is way too late. Incomprehensible to even think about eating sweet corn this time of year. Unless it came from FL or Australia.

Roy and I are assuming you mean boiled and covered with butter and salt. If you mean some other way of processing fresh corn, that's possible.

butter & cracked pepper for me , but yes, that’s what I meant & I assumed the OP was referring to

 

[nxy]

Yes as been said above maize is hard on the internals of a combine but there is also the damage caused to the chassis and drivelines. In a bad year here combining maize is impossible without tracks or 4wd. Most contractors have at least one often older machine for when the conditions get bad. Modern big combines can get very very stuck and can take two or three 250Hp tractors to pull them out and you can be lucky if the only damage is a caved in fan housing and pulling the lower body panels off.

 

[ollie989898]

Lexion s are so much better at dealing with the higher moisture than an axial flow. Lexion failing was the transition from the impeller to the rotors. My 480 was never an issues at the rotors were further apart but my 595 in green stem soybeans will make you cry Even if canola has green stems it rumbles a lot. With the short material involved cutting rice I can see no problem. Terra trac and mud hog hydraulic drive steering axles will virtually walk on water. Please don’t ask how I know. Rather forget those years.

The thought of blocking a Lexion's rotors with rice straw would bring a tear to a witches eye.

 

[Om352]

i would like to know how you get soil in the vcombine in standing peas, cus you always do?

Often thought that too. But I think some of the problem is a mix of dust, soft peas and the smashed up tendrils. Add in a bit of dampness and you have the makings of a perfect cake to line your elevators and auger tubes.

 

[Flatlander]

The thought of blocking a Lexion's rotors with rice straw would bring a tear to a witches eye.

Mine always seem to block at the aps if it’s a pile up that it ingests but it’s the green stem beans that plug the impeller. Rotors can deal with it as it’s loose in them and a straight thru passage.

 

[Pistonbroke]

My cousin grew some sunflowers for the public to pick and the plan was to combine what was left. Apparently very harsh on the machine

 

[ollie989898]

My cousin grew some sunflowers for the public to pick and the plan was to combine what was left. Apparently very harsh on the machine

A lot of dust from cutting sunflowers. They catch combines on fire a lot I'm told.

 

[thorpe]

A lot of dust from cutting sunflowers. They catch combines on fire a lot I'm told.

any thing set on fire this season!

 

[Pistonbroke]

A lot of dust from cutting sunflowers. They catch combines on fire a lot I'm told.

One grower they'd been talking to reckoned he could hear the banging from a mile away. Stalks are like wood

 

[Farmer Roy]

One grower they'd been talking to reckoned he could hear the banging from a mile away. Stalks are like wood

can be, but you don’t harvest the stalks.
A bit like harvesting corn for grain, pretty much all that should be going through the machine is the heads