harvesting sunflowers

[john teixeira]

Trying to find out more ideas on harvesting sunflowers with jd 40 combine, heads fall forward, allot of cracked seed in the hopper, thanks for ideas, thanks much john

 

[MirageFlatter]

I guess I can't offer much in the way of help with your JD 40 John, but I can tell you that sunflowers are a very specialized crop, and require specialized equipment to harvest profitably. If you're trying to straight cut them with a small grain head, you need sunflower pans, or milo guards at the very least, otherwise most will fall on the ground as they're cut off. When we were raising them, we used a JD row crop head, and that worked very well. You have to keep your combine pretty full to avoid cracking seeds, and cracked seeds go straight to tare at the processor. Sunflowers also can be very dangerous to harvest, oil seeds more so, but confections as well. They create a lot of very volatile dust as they're harvested, and that dust catches fire very easily. Quite a few combines have been lost to fires in our area, when folks didn't clean them up and watch them at the end of the day. And its something that just has to be done daily. My best advice is, if you want to raise them profitably, either invest in the specialized equipment it takes to harvest them, or hire someone who has it. Otherwise, they're just bird feed. And thats another thing too, when they're ready to harvest, you gotta get them right now, or the birds will do it for you. And they will clean them out quickly. Good luck!! :wink:

 

[john teixeira]

Hey thanks i am growing for feed around 5 acres, they are organic and were easy to grow, yes they fall forward, Do you know were i can get a design i can build or find used? thanks John

 

[MirageFlatter]

I'll confess to not knowing what a JD model 40 combine is for sure, I'm guessing either an earlier, or pull type version of the model 45? If you're only growing five acres per year, and really want to harvest them yourself, with your old combine, I would just look for a set of milo guards. If you are in an area where milo/grain sorghum is grown, they should be relatively easy to find at any farm store or implement dealer. A milo guard is a forward extension of the sickle guard, and bolts or clips on to the sickle guards. Milo/grain sorghum heads are much like sunflower heads, in that if there isn't something to prevent them from falling, and funnel them back into the grain platform, they simply fall forward, and on to the ground. Milo guards extend the length of the sickle guards forward, and also have wires that extend back towards the platform, so there is something to support and catch the heads before they get to the sickle. and are cut off from the stalk, stopping them from falling forward, and on to the ground. If you can't find new ones, perhaps you could place a classified ad on this site for some used ones. Ripe sunflowers are pretty easy to thresh, run your cylinder as slowly as you can, and with as much cylinder/concave clearance as possible, and still get them knocked out of the head, and keep your machine full of material. These are pretty basic rules of thumb for harvesting any crop with a combine. Follow these pointers, put on a set of milo guards, and I believe you'll get along as well as you can, for what you're working with. Good luck!! :wink:

 

[TimWafer]

John
I made the sunflower pans on this AC All-Crop from scratch. You might check my other Youtube videos as well. I am working on a page for my web site showing some modifications and the sunflower harvest. I have less than 10 acres of them I fool with.
WWW.TIMWAFER.COM

Untitled Audio Video
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7siG3waypMU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7siG3waypMU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>