[swartz]

I have harvest both and sunflowers are far easier on the combine then canola. Canola tears up pickup reels, pickup belts, feeder house chains, and if you staightcut it it tears up the auger in the heads. Sunflowers are far easier to combine.

 

[combiness]

May not be as "easy" as flowers, but if you are doing that much damage to your machine, you had better check your settings and even ground speed.

Canola is still by far, less of a fire hazard, which IS indeed, more combine friendly, too.

Still, there's no way flowers can compete with canola on oil per bu. Canola oil, more than sunflower oil, is more acceptible to use as lubricants as well as food. In essence, canola is simply a green product.

 

[combiness]

This thread is getting off topic, but I just want to add that canola isn't as well adapted to much of the country as sunflowers. Also, while winter canola works well downstate to break up the continuous wheat cycle, it isn't as good of a fit here out west. We don't have a lot of continuous wheat and, as far as I know, winter hardiness is still an issue.

Sunflower gives us another option in the spring, especially in dryland conditions. It works well in our typical wheat-milo-fallow rotation and gives us a way to clean up grass problems that might plague a milo crop. A few local elevators will take 'flowers, whereas the closest delivery point for canola to me is Mooreland. We don't have a lot of on-farm storage and recently we've been storing wheat in our bins during the summer for future marketing.

As for canola being more acceptable than sunflower, well, Frito-Lay is using NuSun oil exclusively for frying potato chips. I've also seen sunflower-based drip oil (irrigation pump lubricant), but I've yet to see anything based on canola oil.

I've only had one fire scare with 'flowers (dust sitting on the PTO housing started smoldering). I keep the machine clean and pay attention to what my nose is telling me. I like 'flowers and I'll keep planting them. I wish I could help these guys with the JDs catching fire, but my lack of knowledge of Deere machines has me stumped. Only thing I can do is parrot everybody else's advice.

 

[mackattack]

dust+spark=FIRE!!!!!!! heck fires happen here in Indiana doing corn so it's not the crop. it's a maintenance issue really

 

[spudbubba]

Wheatwacker is onto it. You want to harvest at night since #1 it's cooler and #2 the oil doesn't come out of the seed as much when it's cool therefore less oil in the combine hence, no fires.

Joe C.

 

[cooper]

Anybody ever heard of confection canola? Don't see to many people spitting canola seeds.

Sunflowers are always going to be a fire hazard with the high oil content of the fuzz that comes off the seed and they seem to find an new way to run into yield issues every year but still are one of our highest net return crops versus canola, wheat or corn.

We only grow confecs on our farm.

 

[Don Boles]

I can't image a more tedious, less rewarding exercise.

Don

 

[wheatwhacker]

I can't image a more tedious, less rewarding exercise.

Don

Don't think anyone could argue that point any.

 

[zambeziriver]

Hi there all. Remember me, from Africa, having fire issues in sunflowers and milo(sorghum). Well this year I had one fire and that was because I did not blow the machine out for one and half days work!!!this was just tosee how far I would go before catching alight. Before I would be blowing the MACHINE OUT AFTER EVERY SINGLE TANK!!!! The change I made was to cut the mufflerr and connect the remainder of exhaust direct on to turbo. Makes a slight bit more noise , uses less fuel, exhaust system breathes easier meaning it ( the exhaust system components) runs cooler and surprise surprise makes less fires. Wow , I really wonder , why, I, here in deepest darkest Africa have to work this one out.... how much are those tech heads in their research departments getting paid??? here's to happier and safer harvesting!!!

 

[ndfarmboy75]

add the discharge paddles to the back of the rotor should take care of it. All you do is remove i think it 4 tines and bolt these paddles on

 

[Snipe]

Its not just oilseeds causing fires most sts combines burn here doing field peas; 2 more burnt here one with 6 hours and one with 11 hours same owner.