|
Sanilac Co. Michigan | Ok, here's what I'd do if I got a wild hair and decided I'd grow light red kidneys:
I'd get the best yielding, most upright variety I could lay my hands on. Then, I'd be looking to direct cut them when the pods are on the tough side of being dry enough. I'd be prepared to only run in short bursts when those conditions were present. Kinda think like pulling beans when the dew's on to avoid the worst of the shatter. From what I recall, kidneys shatter like nobodies business when they're dry!
You're figuring on running them through a Super Series Gleaner and a flex draper platform, you're going to want to do some modifications and additions to make this work.
First things first: does your head have an air bar? It's going to need it. Full stop on the whole project if that's not there. Same goes for rolling your beans after you sow them. I'd say cultivating them is off the table. The next hurdle is how close to the ground you can shave, not clip them. I don't know what cutting system your platform has, but if it's a Schumacher, consider flipping the knife and guards to get the closest cut imaginable, then adjust the pitch up incrementally so your head isn't doing double duty as an excavator....That's no joke!
Once the cut crops in the feeder house, you better make sure there's no concave filler plates, no reverse bars anywhere on your rotor and that you've got the extra helicals in on the separator side of the cage. I don't know if Gleaner sells a dry bean kit to provide those helicals for your S78, but I'm sure you could mix and match some to accomplish the same effect. The whole idea is to move those beans through the processor with no hesitation. Let them linger and quality will suffer. Be prepared to remove the lugs off the front accelerator rolls to reduce seed damage if the crop is real splitty! Slow the clean grain auger, elevator and tank fill auger so it runs full, same when unloading your grain tank. That's the best you're going to be able to do with that part of the system, short of replacing it with a bucket elevator and beltveyor.
So yah, I think you could successfully handle that crop with what you've got, but it's going to take quite a little bit of time, thought and a bunch of patience to get it right. Sure, you could hunt around for pullers and windrowers, find yourself a Bob's or old Llilliston, but if you're really not familiar with that type of operation and you're really just testing the waters with these kidney beans, you might maybe be better off using the stuff you're familiar with.
Hey, the only thing you've got to lose, besides money, is your mind!
Edited by tkoppel 3/25/2020 08:43
| |
|
Direct cutting dry beans
