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FREEDGUY 
Orange Level Access
Joined: 15 Apr 2017
Location: South West Mich
Points: 5396
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 Topic: F2 and Sorghum
Posted: 14 Mar 2019 at 7:33pm |
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Have NO experience with the crop "here", and am away from the farm to look into the "OM"until next weekend, but can anyone comment on the "basic" settings for sorghum?? Is the crop similar to oats/wheat as far as cylinder/concave settings? Thanks
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ac fleet
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Joined: 12 Jan 2014
Location: Arrowsmith, ILL
Points: 2337
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Posted: 14 Mar 2019 at 7:40pm |
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I would start with wheat settings and make micro adjustments from there!
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CrestonM
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Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Location: Oklahoma
Points: 8457
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Posted: 14 Mar 2019 at 7:48pm |
I don't know them off the top of my head, but at least for my All-Crops, they're not too far off from wheat. Concave spacing is slightly larger, and I think cylinder speed is just a bit slower. But...that's going off memory from 3 years ago. Take it with a grain of salt. I do remember I had to raise the cylinder up a bit more than what the book recommended, as I had trouble at first keeping the grain from being chipped. Raised the cylinder a bit and slowed it down and that fixed it. Don't be surprised if you have to adjust things a few times to get it right. Sorghum is kinda hard to clean sometimes because the branches of the head, as well as any stalk you cut off, can easily break up into material about the same size and weight as the grain.
I'm surprised to hear you're growing it in Michigan! Didn't think there would be enough GDU's that far north to get it to physiological maturity. Usually, that stuff's referred to as "Great Plains corn" down here. We don't get enough water for real corn, so the drought-tolerant sorghum does pretty well.
Edited by CrestonM - 14 Mar 2019 at 7:59pm
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FREEDGUY
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Joined: 15 Apr 2017
Location: South West Mich
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Posted: 14 Mar 2019 at 7:58pm |
I should have made a comment that we did change our OEM cylinder bars to aftermarket wide spaced bars 2 seasons ago(should have done that 15 years ago  ). Thanks for the input guys !!
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old farmer
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Joined: 12 Oct 2011
Location: Sturgis, Mich
Points: 341
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Posted: 14 Mar 2019 at 8:10pm |
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Lot of grain sorghum raised in St. Joseph county Michigan, works well with seed corn production. Used on the dry corners of pivot irrigation and as crop for setbacks from other corn, either seed or commercial. Used as replacement for soybeans.
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FREEDGUY
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Joined: 15 Apr 2017
Location: South West Mich
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Posted: 14 Mar 2019 at 8:15pm |
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Old, do you happen to know where they market their "corner" crop? I have noticed the same thing at the old ST. Joseph farm in Granger(IND.) last fall.
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MACK
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Joined: 17 Nov 2009
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Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 7:48am |
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1/4 inch on cylinder, 700 cylinder speed. Don't be surprised if puts some on ground. Leaves go out the back with grain laying on them. Not a pleasant crop to set a machine on. MACK
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tbran
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Paris Tn
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Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 1:50pm |
Oh come on Mack, surely you can get 0 loss on Milo ! :-) There has never been a call about grain loss on high moisture mile or maize .... ha ... used to pull what little hair I had left out on rotor losses ... biggest issue we had was to get customers and operators to understand that less than 1% loss is expert setting quality . IF one looks on the ground , a 1/4 bu to the acre LOOKS like a massive amount.. The issue is compounded by us operators who see a low hanging head and dip down to get it and in the process ingest a header full of green leaves which as you said are magnets for those little seeds. Run the cylinder as fast as possible until it starts to crack then back off - stop the machine and look over the walkers and determine if ALL the grain is threshed out - many walker losses come from un threshed heads being threshed by the chopper - if there are grains still in the heads lower the cylinder.. remember speed cracks. The op man - in my opinion lists too much opening for the top sieve and too close for the bottom or sieve. We try to start at about 7/16" to 1/2" on the chaffer and about 3/8 to 7/16" on the sieve. A wide top setting and closing down the sieve shuts off the air in heavy crop...and it walks out - there needs to be a 6-12" 'rooster tail coming off the end of the shaker shoe... A funny story - we used to attend combine competitions where everyone would show up and make a pass and be judged on loss, grain quality and quantity. We won all we attended with Gleaner R series and even a N in the early 80's. The secret was we would always volunteer to go first - and the judges didn't understand the R series and the fact that all rotor loss went left; they would throw a screen down behind the shoe and it didn't take long to count the kernel or two they found... we were so far ahead of competition it was unbelievable ... the competitor who went NEXT to our left usually came in last ! The 'factory field men' were always left scratching their heads and trying to find where their loss came form.... it was from us... he he ... no one ever caught on - we think we would have won anyway, but it never hurts to have a ringer in the bag of tricks...
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When told "it's not the money,it's the principle", remember, it's always the money..
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wekracer
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Joined: 13 Oct 2009
Location: Tebbetts, MO
Points: 1590
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Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 3:49pm |
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That is a funny story. It’s called competative edge until you get caught. Then it’s called cheating. Lol
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CrestonM
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Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Location: Oklahoma
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Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 8:37pm |
 tbran wrote:
... the competitor who went NEXT to our left usually came in last ! The 'factory field men' were always left scratching their heads and trying to find where their loss came form.... it was from us... he he ... |
That's a good story! But, is the Gleaner really that bad at rotor loss? Because if the other guy who got "last" was because of your loss, then what does that say about the Gleaner as a combine??
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VAfarmboy
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Joined: 06 Dec 2013
Location: Virginia
Points: 470
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Posted: 20 Mar 2019 at 10:28pm |
CrestonM wrote:
tbran wrote:
... the competitor who went NEXT to our left usually came in last ! The 'factory field men' were always left scratching their heads and trying to find where their loss came form.... it was from us... he he ... |
That's a good story! But, is the Gleaner really that bad at rotor loss? Because if the other guy who got "last" was because of your loss, then what does that say about the Gleaner as a combine?? |
All of the rotary machines are bad for rotor loss I don't care what color they are. We have a 9550 walker machine and we don't leave much corn. All of our neighbors have the newest and the latest Case IH and Deere rotary machines (no AGCO dealers around here anymore) and those things sling corn all over the place. I always dove hunt on the farms they rent because there are more birds in their fields than ours. lol
One of our neighbors bought a new Case IH combine a couple of years ago and couldn't ever get it to stop losing grain and he finally got so fed up with it he went and bought a 30 year old 9600 that some guy who quit farming had left sitting out in a field for a couple of years and put it back to work.
Edited by VAfarmboy - 20 Mar 2019 at 10:46pm
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