Harvesting is the final stage in the cultivation of winter wheat. Cleaning should be carried out at the right time in order to maintain the quality of the grain while there was a minimum of losses.
If you violate the rules of cleaning, it can lead to large losses, and cleaning in adverse conditions even to large losses. Losses can also be due to the introduction of new varieties, the application of fertilizers, the attraction of intensive technologies. You will learn more about the methods of harvesting winter wheat and its timing below.
When is it necessary to harvest the winter wheat?
The optimal time for harvesting winter wheat varies within 10-12 days after the full ripening of the grains. If you harvest earlier, then this will require additional energy costs for cutting into shafts and subsequently drying the grain, and if you harvest later than the optimum time, this will lead to a loss of grain.
There are several ways to harvest wheat, the best of which for our territory is direct combining, which should be done in about a week. Also, wheat can be harvested in a separate way, but this method of harvesting in bad weather conditions can lead to a large loss of grain, because of this, in our country, they prefer the method of direct combining more.
If you are late with the time of harvesting, natural loss of grain can occur, which can reach losses of up to 30%. Very large losses may also be due to the occurrence of crops, large debris, and sifting of perennial grasses.
Ways of harvesting winter wheat
There are two ways of harvesting winter wheat:
- separate method
- direct combining
Separate method Wheat harvesting is best applied in fields with a large weed infestation, in fields where wheat ripens unevenly, and in fields where sowing of perennial grass has been sown. Mowing the crop into the shafts should begin about 4-6 days before the full maturity of the crop comes, the humidity of which should be about 30-35%.After passing 3-5 days after cutting into shafts and reaching a humidity of 17-18%, the shafts begin to be assembled with combines.
In order for trees and ears to be well ventilated, the ground should not be touched, medium and low growing varieties should be mowed at a height of 15 cm, and tall and thick crops should be mowed about 20 cm above the ground.
This time is the best for harvesting, but it lasts about 2-3 days.
For such a short period of time to remove the entire crop will not work. If harvesting is carried out in a separate way at the beginning of wax ripening, then the yield will be slightly lower, all due to the fact that the period of nutrient matter reuse from the vegetative organ of the plant for the formation of grain has not ended. If to carry out harvesting in the single-phase way in the first 3-5 days of full maturity, then losses will be minimal.If a little late with this method of harvesting for about 10-15 days, the losses can reach up to 30% of the total yield.
Therefore, with large areas of this crop, the farms begin harvesting using the two-phase method from the beginning of wax ripening and continue until the end of this period. After the grain has ripened completely, harvesting is continued in a single phase manner. In good weather, due to the high performance of the harvesting machines, the main part of the fields is removed in a separate way. In this case, the remaining uncleaned area can be removed by the single-phase method in a short time.
The advantage of a separate method of harvesting is that the harvesting starts a week earlier than with a single-phase method. In addition, less energy is used to dry the grain in the current, the productivity of the harvesting equipment increases.
The disadvantages of a separate method of harvesting is the cost of mowing wheat into trees. There may also be high yield losses and some problems with threshing shafts when they are hit by rain. Because of this, the amount of mown wheat should not be more than a one-day rate of combine with a pick-up. If the shafts are long, more than a week does not pick up, the yield is reduced.Gluten in quality composition is reduced from the first group to the second or third.
At full maturity of wheat, the humidity of which is about 14-17%, the cleaning is carried out in a single-phase manner.
The advantage of single-phase harvesting is its independence from meteorological conditions. After the last rain, the stem dries quickly and after just a few hours you can continue cleaning, but wet rolls from the rain take time to dry much more, about 1-2 days sometimes more, and sunny weather is needed.
In the single-phase method, there is less energy consumption for harvesting, the lower cost of harvesting. Grains of good humidity, well filled and highly germinating. Because of this, the seed parts of the field are harvested directly.
The wheat crop must be removed without significant losses and at the same time preserve food, sowing and fodder quality characteristics. The total yield losses during the two-phase harvesting method are allowed to be no more than 0.5% when harvesting even harvests, and when laid out, not more than 1.5%. The total loss of harvest during harvesting and in a separate way and direct combining should not be more than 2.5%.
As practice has shown, these numbers are much higher. When harvesting with such equipment as Niva or Kolos, which are designed for harvesting up to 40 kg / ha, in areas with a yield of 40-70 kg / ha, losses can be around 5-12 kg / ha. It is possible to reduce the number of losses by reducing the speed of movement of the harvesting equipment and not fully use the header width.
To ease and increase the speed of harvesting, to reduce the loss of grain up to three times, to reduce the cost of grain by saving energy by using herbicides for desiccation before harvesting.
To do this, you can use the following drugs roundup, glyphogan, dominator, volcano and others. They need to make a week and a half before cleaning with a moisture content of not more than 30%. Because of this, perennial weeds are harvested from the fields for planting the following crops.
It has long been established that these two methods of harvesting should not be opposed to one, because each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. A smart and correct solution for farm managers will be the use of two methods, which will be the addition of one to one.The combination of these methods in any farms and in any weather would be a good option. For example, applying a two-phase method with low, rare and unproductive crops is not a rational solution.
This method of harvesting is not suitable in rainy weather and at high crops, as the trees will not be able to dry. At the same time, this very method should be used on very littered lands, even if the harvest is completely dry.
After harvesting, straw and chaff need to be harvested almost immediately after threshing, which quickly frees fields to prepare for planting other crops. Straw can be removed in two ways, loose and pressed, it depends on the climate and on the possibilities of agriculture. As the use of organic and mineral substances is reduced, a larger amount of straw is used not for feed or bedding, but for soil incorporation in ground form. For this, the cleaning equipment must be equipped with special grinders.
When using in-line harvesting of wheat or other grain crops, harvesting is faster, and there is also the possibility of primary tillage.This form can be used both in a single-phase method and in a two-phase method. At the same time, it turns out to carry out the whole range of work: to harvest, to stubble, to prepare the field.
