Yellow peas - moisture at harvest

I use a mini gac as well, but I can't remember which calibration I use. You had mentioned there was a smooth pea setting, so that is probably what I have used. I don't have the tester with me right now, but I will try to remember and check it tomorrow.

As for the moisture, we try to start cutting by 18-20% moisture, and we just put it on air. Personally, I wouldn't be concerned about peas in smaller bins at 14%. If they aren't going to be in there very long, you could have them at 15%. I'm guessing others will have more experience. For what it's worth, we grow green peas, but the issues would be the same.

We go at 16% with no air but usually they end up dryer.

Same here, 16 percent is usually good to go, they seam it's harder than other crops to heat in the bin, probably because there size, and don't worry about some green peas in the sample, the other dry peas grab there moisture quickly and they ussally turn yellow in the bin

One other thing even if they are dry they will still crust over on top so just leave some room on the top of the bin and crawl in and rake them after they been in there a couple months and just keep checking them.

Duane H said:

One other thing even if they are dry they will still crust over on top so just leave some room on the top of the bin and crawl in and rake them after they been in there a couple months and just keep checking them.

Click to expand...

I personally avoid climbing in a full bin at any cost.

I have binned peas without aeration many times. I just leave the lid open while it is "sweating" and have never had any crust.

Personally 16% would b max for me with out air. 14% would be the best IMO. I think the stand and maturity should dictate the moisture. We started a 18% last year and put them on air. They went in 98% mature with green ones and I really needed to watch them. By the end of the field they were down to 16% and we put the last them in a 2500bu bin with no air and they still wanted to make a crust on top so we rotated a few hundred bu out and then dumped it back on top. They were perfect tell we sold them in mid may. Which ever way u go I would keep a close eye in them Good luck with your first harvest hope it goes great!!

We try to be around 16% to avoid splits, also found that if the grain is put into a bin hot (25'c +) they will always crust over on top without aeration no matter how dry the grain is.

Perfect.

Thanks for the replies.

16% is the ideal level of moisture, for us at least. Since I see that others here are also at 16%, I guess we're doing the right thing. I do this for both yellow and green peas.

assault146 said:

We try to be around 16% to avoid splits, also found that if the grain is put into a bin hot (25'c +) they will always crust over on top without aeration no matter how dry the grain is.

Click to expand...

Yes to the crusting when binned hot. And it doesn't necessarily take long either. I have made it a habit to check every bin from the top before unloading it. Sometimes throwing out a bushel or two of spoilage off the top keeps from downgrading.