Quantifying combine auto-adjust capabilities in canola
Term: 1 year, ending March 2023
Status: Complete
Researcher(s): Lorne Grieger, Charley Sprenger, Joel Karstens, Gary Bergen, PAMI
SaskCanola Investment: $56,778.67
Total Project Cost: $113,557.35
Funding Partners: WGRF (*Special mention to Bushel Plus, Shergain who provided drop pans and in-kind support and the cooperating canola producers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba)
Grower Benefits
Average daily temperature had a significant effect on canola harvest yield loss while the overall range of temperature and humidity throughout the day did not appear to.
Higher harvest losses correlated with higher average daily temperatures.
Auto-adjusting combine types have the potential to effectively respond to changing conditions, but still need calibration and monitoring to ensure they are operating properly for the given environmental conditions.
There is no standard set of combine settings that can be attributed to specific losses. Each combine must be optimized for the environmental conditions.
Project Summary
In a previous 2019 study, the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) completed a survey of canola harvest losses in Western Canada to identify harvest factors had an impact on combine losses. The study found that weather conditions were a key factor for harvest losses and combine settings should be checked and adjusted to account for changes in weather. The objective of this new project was to build on the 2019 study, and further investigate the effect of the change of environmental conditions during the day, and to measure the performance potential of combines with auto-adjusting settings while harvesting canola.
A total of 22 combines were tested from 13 producers throughout Saskatchewan and Manitoba. There were 4 combine manufacturers and 14 models represented. Half of the combines had auto-adjusting capabilities and half were manual adjusting. There were 8 swathed loss tests and 14 straight-cut loss tests. Each test took a whole day, as three timing samples were taken. Only the losses between combines with and without auto-adjust capabilities were taken. Drop pans were used by PAMI researchers for accurate loss measurement, but producers manually set their combines without access to this data. Drop pans are the most reliable method for producers to calibrate their own combine settings whether using auto-adjust settings or not.
Producers followed their own individual standard process for setting up their combine as normal and were allowed to make adjustments as they normally would for their combine. Three samples were taken at three different times during the day for one machine to investigate the effect of the changing conditions and the operator’s or machine’s ability to adjust to current conditions. Harvest loss samples were separated, weighed, and recorded and a specific calculation was used to determine canola combine loss. Table 1 shows an overview of the data summary of the 22 combines. Table 2 shows the range of ambient conditions during testing.
The standard deviation from the three tests throughout the day for each combine was calculated to represent variability from the changing environmental conditions. The effect of varying relative humidity on combine losses throughout the day did not appear to be significant across all combines tested. The number of days into testing (i.e., early September vs early October) also did not appear to be significant. Daily mean temperature was the only variable tested that appeared to be significant. As the temperature increased, yield loss variation increased. Ground speed (mph) and average grain feed rate (bu/hr) did not appear to be significant. There did not appear to be any significant difference between auto- and manual-adjusting settings with respect to yield loss. However, the range of potential variation was much smaller for manual types than the auto-adjust, which indicates that while auto-adjusting capabilities may be able to adjust to changing conditions just as well as manual types, they cannot be blindly relied upon and need to be checked regularly.
Full Report PDF: Quantifying Combine Auto-Adjusting Capabilities in Canola