Harvest has been in full swing in Northern IL. Customers are seeing 235 – 250 bu /acre yields and around 22 – 25 % moisture. Customers are still having some issues with cracking corn with the higher moisture. The first thing to check it to make sure your feed accelerator is on the slow speed. Also run your rotor slower than Deere’s recommendations. Run slow enough to prevent damage, but fast enough to get all the corn off the cob. If you are still having issues with cracking, install the smooth feed accelerator paddles and even a feed accelerator slow down kit. We have been selling a few of these and customers are seeing a big improvement in the grain tank. The part number for the slow down kit is BH81691. Contact your local Sloan Implement Parts Department for more info and pricing.
I have been seeing some full season corn that was planted early in the spring where the moisture is around 20%, but the cob has been rubbery and customers are having a few issues with getting the corn off the cob. If you are noticing kernel loss on the rotor sensor, you want to raise your chopper and put the chopper in neutral. By raising the chopper you are dropping all the trash in a wind row and making it easier to see if you are leaving it on the cob or it is just not making it out of the rotor on to the chaffer (loose corn). Mainly, I have been seeing it left on the cob. To correct this, tighten the concave a few millimeters at a time and re-check the rear of the machine. Speeding up the rotor helps with this also. I have been speeding up 20 rpms at a time to make sure I am not damaging the corn.
Unloading auger failures have been back to haunt us once again. The main reason for the failures are leaving the unloading auger full. Customers are “topping off” the grain cart when the bin is full and then shutting off the unload when it is still full of corn. What is happing is the higher moisture corn is then sitting in the auger as they continue picking. The main failure area we have been seeing in the top splines in the vertical auger are getting stripped. When you engage the auger, it will strip the splines then shear the shear bolt in the unload hub. Make sure if you are going to top off the cart, only pick what the cart can hold so you can run the auger empty, especially in higher moisture corn.
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