Soon the sun will come out and soy beans will come off...

While out standing in a field of mud and soybeans, it's a good time to think about how your combine is set up for the looming harvest and how you can measure it's performance. Growing soys with the top genetics and managing the crop to it's fullest with weed control and fungicides is not going to matter much if you are loosing beans out the back of the combine or have misjudged the moisture and your beans are down under 11%.

Minimizing losses before you even get to the field is the first step. At R8 (full maturity) 95% of the pods are brown and the beans will reach 13% moisture in as little as 5-10 good drying days. Even if not all the leaves have dropped from the stems the beans could be dry. Harvest delays after full maturity can result in an increase in shatter, lodging and reduced grain quality.

When you get to the field with the combine, it is important to look at losses in three different areas. In front of the combine(preharvest losses), behind the header (gathering losses) and behind the combine (machine losses). 4 beans in one square foot is equal to 1 bushel of beans lost per acre. Once you pinpoint where you are loosing beans, you can make the proper adjustments you your combine to minimize losses.

With references from Field Facts: Reducing Harvest Losses in Soybeans. Steve Butzen, Pioneer Agronomy Information Manager