FARMERS may be throwing up to $200 worth of grain on the ground every hectare by harvesting too fast.
This result has been the unexpected finding from farmers in Western Australia who decided to do some trials into harvest losses after noticing lower yields than expected from visual inspections.
Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative communications manager Peter Newman said he had worked with the growers on other issues around herbicide resistance when he was told of the losses.
He said it was primarily to do with trying to push too much grain through the harvester.
“Driving at normal speeds, he found that with a canola crop averaging 2.4 tonnes to the hectare, there was a further 400kg/ha of seed being dropped on the ground.
“Based on a canola price of $500/t, this is a lot of income that is being left behind.”
“The ground speed is not the major issue, it is the amount of tonnes harvested per hour, although obviously going faster puts more grain through the header.”
Mr Newman said further work had found it was not just a problem limited to a particular make of harvester.
“It seems to be a problem with all newer, larger capacity harvesters.
“I think in the quest for never ending increases in terms of hourly harvesting rates there is a bit being sacrificed in terms of what the headers are picking up.”
There was good news, though, farmers can greatly reduce their losses simply through changing their operating technique, principally harvest speed.
“What we have found in the bits of work done so far has been that farmers are able to recoup a great deal of the losses simply by slowing down a bit and lowering the amount of tonnes taken off an hour.
“Once you get down to around six kilometres an hour we find the losses are a lot lower and in line with what you would expect.”
Mr Newman said the problem was worst in canola crops, due to the plant’s small seed.
He said tests had showed there were some losses in wheat and barley crops but they were not as significant, particularly in dollar terms.
The canola result highlighted the need for farmers to ensure machines were meeting their needs.
“You’d imagine many people have just gone along and harvested their canola and felt the result was just a little below what they were hoping – the actual cause may be that they are putting a significant amount out the back.
“Obviously the 400kg/ha was at the high end of the scale in a high yielding year but who can afford to leave $200/ha in the paddock?”
“The machinery and farming sectors need to ensure harvesters are configured suitably and that the focus is not solely on tonnes an hour.”