Potato Harvester settings.

[Honest john]

We and many others are having real problems with Bruising this year so far.

The best thing to do is a 20mm irrigation the night before. Any longer than that and it's dried up again.

The problem is water is not best available as small drains choked at this time of year, also the boards keep emptying them for cleaning works.

So starting at front. Topper set fast and as low as poss.
Digger web set at a speed to keep full.
Main Webb set at same speed as digger.
1st halum roller set in transfer ( tried low mid high ) high looks best. Spray bar added to 1st Halum today.
Looks good if we need to extract with it again.
2nd main web rubber coated.
2nd halum roller set to transfer ( tried low mid high )

Multi Sep 2 x spray bars set steep clod rollers down gap small / Med.

Fitted Pressure gauge on cab so driver can keep eye on Water.

Grimme Varitron 220
Digger web 40% main 42% 2nd main 50% Speed 4 / 4.5 K

Still getting to much damage ex Hot Box.
This is less on lower DM crop more on higher DM crops. As you would expect.

Other than rain any idea's please.
Raining now but not much.

Ps. The Spray bar on the Haulm roller looks very good. Wish it was on from day 1.

Got the cloddy fields still to do. Done all the easier land.

Thanks in advance.

 

[redbaron]

Stop and await rain.

 

[Andrew K]

Ditto

 

[ridger]

We are currently digging with an old continental with 2 webs and 2 rows of stars and no picking table, running harvester very slow and tractor at 4.5 km seems to be doing a good job

 

[Sonoftheheir]

This time next week it will be too wet!

I can't see anything else you can do apart from wait for the rain. Ours was getting too dry today. Even in the black the soil has gone Rock solid. We couldn't get above 1.5km, but we only have a underhaag 2600 and there's just not the separation area on them like Grimme. Got four pickers on the back going flat out aswell.
We did have a share right across even though we plant in rows. It was just creating too much clod and soil unnecessarly today, so I took the middle one off. It did seem to help a little. And the spuds still went up ok.
What is your threshold for damage @Honest john ? 1 bruise per spud or not even that?
I must admit I've been pleased with our damage level considering the conditions. I take a hand full of spuds home every night wash them up and put them in the airing cupboard overnight. I'd say we've got an average of 1 tiny bruise on 1 in 4.

I have kept topping up with irrigation right up to two weeks ago, but this field I just couldn't get enough water through to keep it running. Had to wind the irrigator in with the PTO in the end.

Hopefully we get just enough rain to ease the situation!

We are just over halfway done and about 1 week ahead on average.

Seems exactly like harvest 2011 regarding conditions and price.

 

[ridger]

Don't dare ask for rain or it will come And never stop, I can't even remember harvest 2011 did the price improve later in year by any chance

 

[AndrewB]

36mm rain last night and this morning, first time we've been stopped this season. conditions perfect so far but mainly seed so bruising less of an issue! Only 30ac left.

 

[Lincs Lass]

What pitch digger web are you running ,,
I used to drive a reeki ,two webs and a set of dolman rollers ,
Knock off all the aggitation under the main web ,set haulm rollers to reverse drive so the crop runs over them and not getting draged against them ,,
Never seen the mechanics of a grimme but the dolman rollers had a pitch adjuster and a rotating hedghog belt above them that had a variable speed .
This belt was set low to stop the crop from bouncing around .
All you can do if its very dry is to keep the machine as full as posible to cushion the crop

 

[Pola]

Multi Sep 2 x spray bars set steep clod rollers down gap small / Med.

Are you cleaning with both multiseps ? We are transferring with the 1st set with rollers fully up , then cleaning with 2nd set also with clod rollers right up. 1st set rollers quite slow but 2nd set much faster. I know the spray bars make a huge difference.

 

[grumpy]

why bother as tatties are worth feck all,

 

[ridger]

I changed to the continental instead of variant, less rollers to damage crop

 

[ridger]

why bother as tatties are worth feck all,

When tide is at it's lowest it has to turn

 

[ORRA LOON]

We have parked up for the weekend as its too dry, done all the heavier land and only have 30 acre left of sand. I run my machine similar to GJG's description. Had a little rain today but a strong wind has dried it up already

 

[Honest john]

This time next week it will be too wet!

I can't see anything else you can do apart from wait for the rain. Ours was getting too dry today. Even in the black the soil has gone Rock solid. We couldn't get above 1.5km, but we only have a underhaag 2600 and there's just not the separation area on them like Grimme. Got four pickers on the back going flat out aswell.
We did have a share right across even though we plant in rows. It was just creating too much clod and soil unnecessarly today, so I took the middle one off. It did seem to help a little. And the spuds still went up ok.
What is your threshold for damage @Honest john ? 1 bruise per spud or not even that?
I must admit I've been pleased with our damage level considering the conditions. I take a hand full of spuds home every night wash them up and put them in the airing cupboard overnight. I'd say we've got an average of 1 tiny bruise on 1 in 4.

I have kept topping up with irrigation right up to two weeks ago, but this field I just couldn't get enough water through to keep it running. Had to wind the irrigator in with the PTO in the end.

Hopefully we get just enough rain to ease the situation!

We are just over halfway done and about 1 week ahead on average.

Seems exactly like harvest 2011 regarding conditions and price.

The Hot box does scare the sh!t out of you. Set at about 30 C with high Humity. It shows up bruising very well.
When after curing in store you see much less.

The big machines do have a lot of drops 6 on mine to get them in the cart. If clod is a bit sharp that's not good.

I started this thread to get some tips and also pass on any tips.

We have the Markies to pick, which is why I put a water sprayer on the Haulm roller as will likely need to extract on them.

After the wet winter & lack of frost the beds had hard clod in them. That clod is still there. We would need a good soaker to deal with them.
Today's 5mm will just stop the dust.

We are getting from .5% to 33% with damage on. We normally see about 15% approx? irrigation helps but the clod is still there.

I agree 1" of steady rain would be a great help.

 

[Honest john]

What pitch digger web are you running ,,
I used to drive a reeki ,two webs and a set of dolman rollers ,
Knock off all the aggitation under the main web ,set haulm rollers to reverse drive so the crop runs over them and not getting draged against them ,,
Never seen the mechanics of a grimme but the dolman rollers had a pitch adjuster and a rotating hedghog belt above them that had a variable speed .
This belt was set low to stop the crop from bouncing around .
All you can do if its very dry is to keep the machine as full as posible to cushion the crop

The digger Webb is 40mm.

One could fit a rubber over Webb on top of the main Webb. But with sharp small clod more will end up in the cleaner.

I think the 45 is best on the main with a small amount of Shake to get rid of the small clod.
A neighbour has or did have a 50mm on to get rid of the small clod. ( May have to do that on stronger fields )

 

[Honest john]

Multi Sep 2 x spray bars set steep clod rollers down gap small / Med.

Are you cleaning with both multiseps ? We are transferring with the 1st set with rollers fully up , then cleaning with 2nd set also with clod rollers right up. 1st set rollers quite slow but 2nd set much faster. I know the spray bars make a huge difference.

I did try that.
On the Varitron you can't drop the clod rollers below 80% in transfer. I found the crop would not flow over it fast enough. To keep the rest of the machine full. Crop building up in the area of the 2nd Haulm roller / Webb.
Then went to extract, unit step as poss down, clod rollers low.

What Webb speeds forward speeds are you running, please.

 

[Lincs Lass]

We ran a 40mm on sandland but mainly because they were contract crisping spuds ,,had some ,,what we refered to as Carr land,,what used to be the old flood plains before the river was redirected,,lovely land iff you caught it right ,,if it was wet forget it ,if it was bone dry you needed dinamite ,,only grew 15acre max of store crop ,,caras,marfona,
Only ever put the 50mm in when all else failed as too much dropped though it .

 

[redbaron]

Well are spuds under 50mm worth anything at all this year? I suspect the next 2 days weather may cure HJ's problems. How long till 50mm webs, max agitation, agressive multi-sep, and wheel motors are all brought into play?

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Thought mids were short, due to the spuds being bigger this year?

50mm pitch would be a last resort I reckon, too many ground keepers for the next few years.

Got a GT coming on demo next wk, will see how much faster it is. Are there too many adjustments on them? What would happen to the hyd drives/belts if you got a bit of bog oak stuck? Would they give at all?

 

[7610 super q]

Fast forward speed, low revs(slow webs), try and keep cushion of soil on web as long as possible?