HARVESTING a delicate product where visual quality is important makes taking off sunflower crops a tricky process, but an industry stalwart says there are some harvester set-up hacks that can make the process easier.
Kevin Charlesworth, a long-time sunflower grower from Clifton, on the Darling Downs in Queensland and former vice president of the Australian Oilseeds Federation said getting a good sunflower sample was critical to the producer's ability to market their crop.
"The end users don't want a poor sample and equally you don't want to leave seed in the paddock," he said.
"Harvesting is the one phase during the season where you can manage your losses so its important to get it right."
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Speaking at the Australian Summer Grains Conference earlier in the month Mr Charlesworth said there were factors both during the growing season and at harvest that could help get more seed and a cleaner sample.
Prior to harvest, Mr Charlesworth said getting an even stand in terms of both plant density and height would assist during harvest.
"You have the same amount of material travelling into the machine and you can set the header up for those standards, but with a variable crop it is not as effective."
Closer to harvest he said growers had to be ready to go when the crop was mature.
"The accepted moisture level is 9 per cent, you would probably want to start a little higher than that, when it is around 11pc or so, the higher moisture grain will easily be absorbed in a 200 hectare paddock."
"Starting too late when the crop is at 9pc means when you finish it will be extremely dry and you'll take in more stalk and head and run into quality issues, while harvesting in ultra-dry conditions also obviously increases the fire risk."
At harvest he said there were three key processes the farmer could control when harvesting, gathering, separating and cleaning the grain.
"Little things can add up, like your direction of travel or even having high crop dividers stopping the seed bouncing out, it could mean losses of 10kg/ha, which does not sound like much at all, but over 100ha it's a tonne and at $1000/t that is worth having."
On the grain separation process he said getting the drum and rotor speed correct was important.
He also said the use of blanking sheets could assist when a grower was taking a lot of material into the front.
Cleaning is critical to achieving a good sample.
Mr Charlesworth said the top sieve, bottom sieve and fan controlled the cleaning process, but cautioned never to adjust all three at once so you can accurately identify what the problem is.
"You have to work through it all logically and rule out various scenarios, is the fan speed too high, is it too low, is the low sieve too closed which could stifle air flow to the top sieve."
Mr Charlesworth suggested performing a stall stop to correctly analysis what the sample was like.
"A stall stop will provide excellent information that can help you see what is happening within the header."
"With patience, however, you can get things right and you can get down to virtually zero losses in most instances."
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
