The modern combine harvester, also referred to as a combine, is a versatile instrument designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The term “winnowing” refers to the combination of the four separate harvesting procedures of reaping, threshing, gathering, and winnowing. Wheat, rice, oats, rye, barley, corn, sorghum, soybeans, flax, sunflowers, and ʀᴀᴘᴇseed are some of the crops that can be harvested with a combine. The crop’s stems and any remaining leaves are included in the separated straw that is left on the field; the straw is then either chopped, spread out, and plowed back into the soil, or it is baled for use as livestock bedding and limited-feed.
One of the most economically significant labor-saving innovations is the invention of the combine harvester, which significantly lowers the percentage of the population working in agriculture.
Adaptable removable headers for specific crops are a feature of combines. The typical header, also known as a grain platform, has a reciprocating knife cutter bar and a rotating reel with metal teeth to help the crop fall into the auger once it has been chopped. A platform variant known as a “flex” platform is similar to the standard platform but has a cutter bar that can flex over ridges and contours to cut soybeans with pods that are ᴄʟᴏsᴇ to the ground. While a rigid platform is typically used only for cutting cereal grains, a flex head can cut both soybeans and cereal crops.
Instead of a cross auger, some wheat headers, referred to as “dʀᴀᴘᴇr” headers, employ a fabric or rubber apron. Due to lower power needs, dʀᴀᴘᴇr headers enable faster feeding than cross augers, resulting in better throughputs. To decrease costs, platform headers rather than separate wheat headers are frequently utilized on farms to cut wheat.
Spring-tined pickups are a feature of dummy heads or pick-up headers, and they are often fastened to a thick rubber belt. They are applied to crops that have already been harvested and arranged in swaths or windrows. This is especially helpful in northern climates, like western Cᴀɴᴀᴅᴀ, where swathing ᴋɪʟʟs weeds and speeds up the drying process.
Although a separate corn head can be utilized, a grain platform can also be used for corn. The corn head has snap rolls that separate the ear from the stalk and leaf so that only the ear enters the throat. As a result, far less material needs to pass through the cylinder, which greatly enhances efficiency. The presence of points between each row identifies the corn head.
Rowcrop heads, which look like corn heads but have points between the rows like a grain platform, are occasionally seen. These are employed to lessen the quantity of weed seed that is collected during the harvest of tiny grains.
To aid in the harvesting of rice, self-propelled Gleaner combines could be equipped with specialized tracks rather than tires. These tracks can be modified by adding adapter plates to fit different combines. Some combines, especially those that pull, feature tires with deep diamond treads that protect them from sinking into mud.
The chopped crop is transported up the feeder throat by a chain and flight elevator before being fed into the spinning threshing drum and grooved steel bars that make up the combine’s threshing mechanism. Through the action of the cylinder against the concave, a shaped “half drum” also fitted with steel bars and a meshed grill, through which grain, chaff, and smaller debris may fall, the rasp bars thresh or separate the grains and chaff from the straw, while the straw, being too long, is carried through onto the straw walkers.
Additionally, since grain weighs more than straw, it is permitted to move it from the cylinder or concave to the walkers by “falling” rather than “flying.” On most machines, the distance between the drum and concave can be precisely adjusted fore, aft, and together in order to produce the best separation and output. Normally, the concave is supplied with ᴍᴀɴually operated disawning plates. These add additional friction to help barley crops remove their awns. The clean grain flows via the concave and to the shoe, which houses the chaffer and sieves, after the main separation at the cylinder. Both rotary combines and conventional combines share the same shoe.
Let’s see Wheat Harvest 2022 Kansas – Harvest Millions Of Tons Of Wheat In America & Cᴀɴᴀᴅᴀ in the ᴀᴡᴇsome video below.
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Video resource: Tony 98 – Discovery
