Farms.com Home   News

Minimizing Soybean Loss During Harvest

A farm production advisor with Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development wants to help producers better manage their soybean harvest.

Terry Buss was a guest speaker at a crop tour in the Steinbach area last week and talked about the importance of setting the cutter bar at the correct height.

"A big part of harvesting soybeans is getting as low as we can go," he said. "Laying a finished 2x4 on its side gives you a height of about an inch and a half, that's how low the cutter bar is cutting for the producers I work with who have really gotten good at harvesting soybeans."

Buss noted about 80 per cent of losses occur at the cutter bar as a result of the knife being too high.

Another important factor to consider, according to Buss, is reel speed. He says it's important not to run the reel too fast, as that will end up knocking beans out of the pods. Also a reel that is spinning too slow will leave soybeans on the field.

Buss also said that the best time to do plant stand counts is after harvest. He recommends taking a hoop that is 28.25 inches in diameter (he used a hoola-hoop) and multiplying the amount of plant stands by 10,000. That number will give you the total number of plants per acre.

Source: SteinbachOnline


Trending Video

USDA Crop Reports/Trade Deals a Bust + Monster U.S. Corn Crop = Lower Prices

Video: USDA Crop Reports/Trade Deals a Bust + Monster U.S. Corn Crop = Lower Prices


StoneX projects a monster U.S. 2025 corn yield at 186.9 bpa, while the USDA provided no big surprises in the July crop report. A lack of U.S. trade deals/ag purchase agreements after 3-months but rather an escalation/threat in tariffs with 30% to Japan, 25% on South Korea, 35% for Canada and 50% for Brazil/copper is weighing on fund ag sentiment.

Regardless, funds after 3 years continue to chase and pile into Bitcoin ETF’s and the AI trade with NVDA both at new all time record highs and NVDA hitting the $4 trillion market cap first.

U.S. weather remains non-threatening for July and dry areas of Northern Illinois are getting rain.

Western Canada is expected to get periodic rains every 3-4 days with no excessive heat, but farmers are complaining that the rain chances very seldom materialize.

U.S. border to Mexican feeder cattle closes again to screwworm and should remain closed but this combined with new U.S. tariffs for Brazil means less supplies and a continuation of the bull market in cattle.