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West central IL | Didn’t want to derail the thread below on increasing soybean yields, but it contained an interesting reply that I wanted to combine with some other information I’ve read on this page.
I currently store 44,000 bu of beans on farm, but would like to increase that to around 80,000 by storing most of my beans. I can harvest my beans generally in one good week of harvest if conditions are right, so I feel like timeliness of harvest isn’t my problem. Maybe it’s because I generally only plant two or three varieties. But if I start beans at 14.5%, by the time I’m done I admit I’m harvesting more 10.5% beans than I’d like, especially if it’s a dry breezy late September week which most are here in central Illinois. I will add that I don’t think I’m doing anything any differently than my neighbors either so part of me wonders if there’s a bit of a “NAT myth” that isn’t how things work I’m the real world, but if I’m doing something wrong I want to learn.
So here are my questions:
With an eye on harvest, in the spring with say 1,000 acres of beans, how many varieties do you plant to hit fields that have only been ready for a day or two?
At what moisture do you start cutting them, and are they going into your own storage or commercial storage. I’ll start with, in my experience taking over 15% beans to commercial storage is a beat down because of shrink. Do you also find that to be the case?
Down the page a poster was talking about harvesting what to me was REALLY high moisture beans. 80 bu/ac beans already can cut pretty hard when they’re 14% for my size combine. To cut beans as high of moisture as some say, are you just going really slow and cutting right through the green spots? Are you losing lots of butter beans on the ground?
IF you do harvest 16% beans, do you just put them in a bin with ones that are 14% by the end of the day, and then keep air on them? If it’s 85° plus out do you worry about that wet of beans in a bin or them spoiling? My storage for beans is all 10 to 13k bins with no method to blend as the bins are at different old homesteads. Does this make the idea of harvesting that wet of beans a no go?
Have seen southern guys talk about defoliating beans. I plant 30” beans so it’s a possibility but I’ve never seen it done in this area ever. Can you who have done it talk about the chemicals favored, logistics of doing so, and the economics?
Sorry for the long post and thanks for any insights! | |
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Increasing bean yields- harvest techniques and storage
