[gndfarms]

We have a 2001 2388 standard rotor ,no chopper have cover plates onthe front concave . This was the first year we did wheat with it and I set it to the factory setting and it was grinding the straw to almost dust, Tryed slowing the roter some. but could not get nice straw . 25 ft head and the windrow would be gone the next day, Thanks for any help on this

 

[mwhacker88]

I have not run a rotary but all of them that I have seen mince the straw up pretty well.

 

[2366man]

yea we did wheat for the first time last year to.
our 2366 with out a chopper also chopped the straw very small it was hard to get the baler pickup to pick it up.
it was just like fluff

 

[caseihaxialflow]

The standard rotor works better for windrows than the specialty or AFX. Not sure why you didn't get good windrows. Concave to tight, rotor speed too high, veins adjusted forward too much, crop not tough enough? These things can contribute. We have swapped out specialty to standard for baling purposes and had no trouble.

 

[adk247]

did you try cuttin when the straw was a little tuff

 

[combinekid]

what are you running for a rotor setup? Slotted grates do a better job in straw than keystocks. If there is bars on the slotted grates they should be on the outside. Veines shouldn't be in the slow position. What type of wheat and how good of a crop it was can make a big difference too. Straw quality changes a lot if it was 10 % moisture versus 17. If the machine was not run at capacity with sufficent crop in it that will affect it also. I usually like to run the concaves pretty tight so that I can slow the rotor speed down more. Less rotor speed will not break the straw up as much and if the concaves are tighter than there is less room for the straw to roll around and break up also. This does however affect capacity somewhat. just my opinion. That being said I don't think you can get as good straw with an 88 as you can with a small rotor machine.

 

[doorknob]

Factory "settings" are not really settings, they are a general starting place. I doubt 1 in 300 machines can actually stay at the factory settings for their entire crop and make a profit.

You have to prioritize what you want to accomplish. If the straw is really important, you may not be able to keep up with the neighbors that dont bale the straw, or you may have a slight increase in loss, etc.

"Here" in grass seed country, we have allways in the past, baled the straw off behind the combine. We are changing that now, but the point is, some setting changes and performance goodies have made a world of difference in the straw windrow behind the machine. If the picture shows up here, it will show 2 windrows behind 2 IH machines. The right row is mone with a 1680, specialty rotor fully equipped with Gorden rotor bars, and the left row is a 2388 with the stock specialty and stock bars.

The balers really liked the gorden bar rows as they were even and the tractors did'nt have to constantly change ground speed to keep the amount of slices per bale just right.

Its a common thing for people to want to keep sharp edges on their concaves and near new rotor bars in their machines. Usually this is a good thing, but they dont bale the straw so....... A wore out concave and a near smoothe set of bars will help with the straw as well as with the standard rotor, removing the straight bars from the rotor. If you have'nt allready done so, you can easily remove the maize seperator bars and install the straight bars with out the teeth.

Keep the machine full. !!!! If you cant keep the rotor full of material, it cant transport the material rearward very well and will chew the straw to bits. It takes lots of material to make the transport mechanism work well in a rotor machine.

 

[HighDesert]

I think there is something to what Doorknob is saying about the sharp edges of concaves breaking up the straw more than a more worn set. We have a 1680 that has a set of concaves that is more worn than the other two combines and the straw does come out longer from it. As long as the grain is coming out of the head, no need to pulverize the straw. We bale all of our straw for the dairies around here and it would be nice to have longer straw. I'm going to try a round bar concave in the 3rd position this year and see if that helps. We also run the smooth grates with the bars on the outside.

 

[homefarmtobydog]

We bale most of our straw from our 2388. Better to cut as soon as able the more ripe it is the more the straw becomes brittle and breaks up.

However one thing which we do which does help with baling is to leave the spreaders on remove most of the bats and hang two sheets from the spreader guard to form the row.

This stops the straw from being driven into the stubble and leaves a row similar to a strawwalker combine. The width of the row can even be adjusted by altering the sheets to match the baler pick-up. Our square baler contractor says the axial flow has gone from the worst combine to bale after to the best as he no longer needs to weave to fill the bales properly

 

[goalie]

lcgriff1 I would be very interested to know how the round bar works. Let us know.

 

[gndfarms]

WE are running large wire concaves with 3 cover plates on and slotted grates but I think the grates are on the inside ( would go look but combine is in back shed and cant get to it too much snow)T he machine came from dakota and did alot of wheat.I will have to do some fine tuning this spring.It is alot more machine than the 1660 I had so may have to change mind set on ground speed. Just never wanted to plug it. Had a guy come help me with bean harvest this fall with a2388 afx roter and he started to race me and pluged that thing tight you never heard so many swear words out of both of us!!!!!!

 

[HighDesert]

I will let you know about how the round bar in the 3rd position works. I saw a post on this board about a guy who starts the season with one round bar concave and as things dry out he switches to two round bars in the rear two positions. I hope the round bar works.

 

[bigs1]

Not sure how good your crops are but a 25 ft head on a 2388 probably not enough material going into machine. You have to load up these combines to get your best sample and job. Your ground speed was probably to slow, I no you don't want to slug it so set your monitor to go off when the rotor slows down. Like some of the other guys said the book is a starting point, each machine is a little different. Make sure your vanes are set so the straw moves through faster but mostly crowd it, load it up. Open up the concaves a little bit, a run your header lower to get more straw. If all else fails get a 30 ft header. Hope a few of these ideas will help you. S

 

[doorknob]

Yes, I too would like to hear about the round bar setup. Please keep us in mind next year when you try this.

 

[homefarmtobydog]

Here are photos of the sheets we use to windrow our straw.

As you see we leave the spreaders on and the straw hits the sheets and falls to form a more conventional row which balers find easier to pick up

Our straw seems to vary on the amount it breaks up both by variety and from year to year no matter how the combine is set.

This set up allows us to make resonable bales even from quite badly broken straw.

 

[2366man]

here is a picture of how bad are 2366 was grinding the straw with just the spreaders off.

 

[dan]

i thought my straw was bad! i usually cut pretty low (uses more fuel but i pass that along to the customer!) set your vanes all the way back. made a big difference to me. are you using smooth grates? and keep er full

Dan

 

[2366man]

No we aren't using smooth grates we are using keystock grates

we were keeping it pretty full to it might be grinding it real bad to
because are combine is mainly setup for corn and soybeans.
that was the first year we had ever did wheat we had originally planted it as cover crop then decided to leave 100acres to harvest the stand wasn't the best because we just brodcasted it and disked it in surprisingly it made 58 bushels per acre

 

[homefarmtobydog]

Your straw is well mashed 2366 but I think your picture shows very well how the axial flow then drives the straw through the stubble.

The straw sure has some velocity as it exits the combine compare to a straw walker which just floats off the walkers and mostly stays on top of stubble.

Leaving the spreaders with the sheets on changes this velocity from vertical to horisontal which means it stays on top of stubble better.

I think you would be able to see a row of straw behind your combine with this set up even if it was all broken up.

 

[2366man]

yea i would say that you are probably right this was a first time experience for us.
it probably would have helped if are wheat would have a thicker stand.