Hi I'm Daniel Smith Southwest Regional specialists for the Nutrientand Pest
Management Program at the University of Wisconsin Madison campus. And I'm Kevin
Jarek, Crop, Soils, and Horticulture agent for UW
Extension Outagamie County. Today what we want to do is talk about end of
season clean-out for combines. As a member of the North Central Region
Cropping Academy, we've developed a protocol that will help farmers with
this process when a combine leaves the field. Most farmers
don't realize that there's a bout of 150 pounds of bio material that leave the
field with it one of the things that we want to discuss today is the fact that
while there is a protocol that exists for identity preserves seed as far as
cleaning combine, our concern is herbicide resistant seed being
transported one from one field to anothe,r and particularly hitching a ride
on the combine. Before we start to clean the combine it's important to talk a
little bit about safety. We want to read and follow all safety instructions that
come with the combine, the compressor, and the leaf blower that we'll be using
to clean the combine. It's also important to wear protective equipment while we're
cleaning the combine. We both have jackets, long pants, and work
shoes on, along with gloves. The first part of our personal protective
equipment that we need to add will be a respirator or a dust mask with at least
a nosh 95 or P 100 rating for the filter size. The second portion of our
PPE includes some sort of eye protection. Good safety glasses or even goggles to
prevent any fine material from flying into our eyes. And then the final step
since we'll be using a loud leaf blower and air compressor would be some sort of
hearing protection, either earplugs or earmuffs.
Prior to leaving the field, run the combine, and
then what we want to do is engage the safety stop and open the rock trap. The
next thing we want to do is open the unloading auger sump. The next thing we
want to do is open the tailings elevator door and the clean grain elevator. Now
we're going to start the combine and separator, adjust the cleaning shoe fan to
full speed for maximum air flow and alternately open and close the shoe SIVs
electronically. Now that we've operated the combine over
a rough terrain for two minutes to dislodge any further material, we're
going to move to the top of the machine to the grain tank. We always want to
clean from the top down. Dan is going to show us how to use a leaf blower to
begin that process.
We also want to make sure after using the leaf blower to get the material that
that is not dislodged by air movement. Here you can see Dan using a knife to
remove kernels that were a part of the safety step. The next thing we want to do
is clean out the unloading auger. We're going to accomplish that by packing
approximately a cubic foot and a half of wood chip material, approximately half
inch in size, into the sump.
Now that we finished cleaning the unloading auger we want to make our way
towards the front of the combine, particularly the header unit. We want to
lift the snouts so we can expose the bio material that's accumulated, and now it's
time to remove this.
Now that we've cleaned the exterior of the header, unit we want to make sure we
clean the interior as well. Now that we've removed the head of the machine we
want to use compressed air to blow bio material from the feederhouse.
now we want to remove the access panels to the rotor and cylinder concave to
clean the threshing area.
Next you want to use compressed air to clean the exterior of the combine your
walk-around remove any bio material that's still on the machine as well. The
next thing we want to do is remove residue from the clean grain auger.
The next thing we want to do is clean the chopper by removing plant material
from the rotor. Now that the sieves are open to their maximum width, all we need
to do is remove the cover. The next thing we want to do is clean the elevators by
opening the lower doors. The next thing we want to do is open and empty the
moisture sensor and then reassemble, andthat will finish the process for us today.
By following the steps outlined in this procedure this should help limit your
exposure to spreading herbicide resistant weeds through your combine. For
more information please follow the links at the end of this video.