How long for grain to dry in the field?

[teslacoils]

Rather than me keeping checking, is there a way to take the humidity, temp and wind speed feed from the forecast, and work out roughly what time to get the combine out?

You can tell I'm bored now.

 

[Wombat]

Depends if it’s raining as it is here at the moment

 

[Two Tone]

With the sort of rain we have been having, I reckon for wheat you need 2 dry, sunny days and it will come down to about 15% by the third day.

With Barley, you might get away with a day less and with Rape, it could be just hours after it last rained.

 

[Steevo]

A good sunny/breezy day and grain can dry in the field at 0.75-1% an hour......a rainy spell and it can go the other way even quicker!

That's as technical as I can get.

 

[teslacoils]

I just wondered if there was a proven link between wind, heat and humidity so I could get the data from one app, and feed it into another ........

 

[DRC]

It won’t be just how dry the grain is, but what the ground conditions are like . People getting stuck on light land around here , trying to get stacked bales off the fields.

 

[Still Farming]

How long is a piece of string.
Crop,flat,lowland, upland,thickness, trees,hedges wind,sun soil type etc etc etc

 

[Cowcalf]

depends where the field is !

 

[Zippy768]

So its 10:45am on Saturday, so should be dry...*checks watch*......Tuesday!

 

[tr250]

Rather than me keeping checking, is there a way to take the humidity, temp and wind speed feed from the forecast, and work out roughly what time to get the combine out?

You can tell I'm bored now.

I think you need to go and find yourself a job to take your mind off it. No 2 fields will be the same no 2 farms will be the same ripe wheat will dry quicker than unfit etc.

 

[teslacoils]

I know there's a few variables, but given fit corn surely it wouldn't be overly tricky to be able to figure out from the forecast if there was even a cat in hell's chance of cutting some crop, or if I could book a few days away. Or not bother to get up quite so early.

 

[tr250]

I know there's a few variables, but given fit corn surely it wouldn't be overly tricky to be able to figure out from the forecast if there was even a cat in hell's chance of cutting some crop, or if I could book a few days away. Or not bother to get up quite so early.

Your rounduped stuff will dry quicker but also go flat and chit quicker ??

 

[teslacoils]

Your rounduped stuff will dry quicker but also go flat and chit quicker ??

No roundup on wheat.

 

[tr250]

No roundup on wheat.

Was it not you saying it wasn’t possible to cut wheat without it a couple of months back! I apologise if it wasn’t

 

[Gadget]

It also depends if it is ripe or not!
Last week we were cutting at 17% when we started, I was not sure if it was properly ripe but it thrashed ok and with the forecast I thought that it was better in the shed.
A neighbour, who had sprayed his off, also started at 17 and soon got down to 15. Ours, even after a long sunny afternoon, only got down to the 16s

 

[DRC]

I know there's a few variables, but given fit corn surely it wouldn't be overly tricky to be able to figure out from the forecast if there was even a cat in hell's chance of cutting some crop, or if I could book a few days away. Or not bother to get up quite so early.

I think your safe to have the weekend off.
There will be no lying in bed when you get your cattle

 

[Two Tone]

It won’t be just how dry the grain is, but what the ground conditions are like . People getting stuck on light land around here , trying to get stacked bales off the fields.

If anybody is worried about ground conditions and combining after all this rain, I’d advise putting wider wheels on the back, before trying to use Dual wheels on the front. It is often the back wheels the act like anchors in very wet conditions.

I put these on my TF 78 in 2007 and then on this CX6080 in 2012. I’ve never taken them off since. They make a hell of a difference.

 

[teslacoils]

Was it not you saying it wasn’t possible to cut wheat without it a couple of months back! I apologise if it wasn’t

No. I said that typically the cost of the roundup is easily recouped in reduced drying, less waiting for straw etc.

But this year it looked nice and even so we didn't do any. This is unusual and I will be looking at a couple of fields that were late drilled to see if they need some.

I did do the winter barley tramlines where the digestate umbilical / wide tyres leave greens.

 

[Two Tone]

I bought these back wheels in 2007 from a farm near Liecester. There were used on the front of a tractor for Lime spreading. The farmer had a brand new JD 4x4 combine, but I noticed the the back wheels were on with the treads the wrong way round.
When I pointed it out, he said that the only time he used 4x4, was to back out when he got stuck. And that if he caught the driver using 4 wheel drive trying to go forward, he’d get the sack straight away.

 

[B'o'B]

Dad has a very good book about grain drying and storage from the 1980s that has a table for the equilibrium moisture content of a given crop at a range of relative humilities. There is a bit of lag but it’s a reasonable guide. Of course the combine will add a bit back into the grain if the straw is still damp. I think it’s got to get below 65%RH to stand a chance getting below 15% in wheat. The amount of times I’ve looked at the book I should be able to remember the whole chart!