BARLEY THRESHING

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23545, 24 January 1942, Page 4

BARLEY THRESHING

CARELESS HANDLING

HEAVY LOSS TO GROWERS

INVOLVED

As much as Is 3d a bushel can be lost through running the drum of the barley threshing machine at too great a speed. If run too fast, the barley can be damaged, the most frequent injury being the destruction of the germ cell at the end of the grain. This damage can be sufficiently serious to degrade barley from the mailing class down to feed barley, and the cash loss to the grower as a result ranges from Is 3d a bushel in the case of stack threshed barley; a loss of lid with stock threshed barley; and 7Jd for barley threshed out of the windrow. A good crop can be easily ruined as malting barley if the threshing machine is not properly adjusted. The grower should check the progress of the threshing constantly. At Ijrst it may be difficult to detect damaged grain, but with very little practice a satisfactory check can be made. The main method of doing this is to spread out some of the threshed grain very thinly on the hand, or, preferably, on a sheet of paper or cardboard. Careful examination will show up the damage done by the threshing drum that is revolving too fast. The correct speed varies in accordance with the condition of the grain and the heat of the day at the time of threshing. Every operator of a threshing mill nr header (when picking up from windrows) must adjust the drum to run as slowly as possible and yet thresh all the grain out of the straw.

Points which every grower must watch at threshing time are:— (1) The crop must be evenly ripe and fit.

(2) Inspect the grain running from the machine at frequent intervals during each day of threshing. (3) Keep the drum running as slowly as possible, but at the same time keep up the speed of the riddles to the standard set by the manufacturers. (4) If grain tails over with the straw the shakers are probably running too slowly. To correct, speed up the shakers without altering the drum speed. With mills one lap or two laps of belting can be used to build up the pulley which drives the belt to the shaker shaft pulley. Proper attention to the foregoing can obviate a good crop being degraded.