QUALITY OF SOYBEAN HARVESTING WITH GRAIN HARVESTERS
The assessment of the quality of soybean harvesting by grain harvesters was carried out in the farms of the Central Black Earth region. Combine harvesters RSM 161, Acros 595Plus, KZS-1218A were selected as objects of observation. Combines worked with headers of three types. These are a conventional grain header, a lowcut modified header, and a stock soybean header. When working with a conventional grain header, soybean losses behind the header reached 12.6%. Large losses limit the use of conventional grain headers in soybean harvesting. The headers upgraded for a low cut had losses of 2.1 ... 2.4%. Serial domestic soybean headers "Float Stream" allowed losses of 4 ... 8% under the observed conditions. This was a loss in loose grain, no loss in uncut beans. The main reason for the increased losses is the harvesting of dry, overripe crops. In other conditions, these headers may well work on harvesting soybeans with losses acceptable by agro-requirements. Losses behind the thresher for the observed combines were in the range of 1.4 ... 4.0%. The increased losses of soybean grain behind the threshing machine were due to the high rotational speed of the cleaning fan. Light grain was simply blown out. Crushing of bunker grain of combines varied within 3.6…10%. High crushing was observed in combines with increased speed of the threshing drum and insufficient clearance between the drum and the deck. The clogging of bunker grain on the observed combines was in the range of 0.8 ... 2.7%. Combines with a cleaning fan speed of 800 rpm showed less contamination of about 1%, but at the same time, grain losses increased up to 4% behind the combine thresher. As a result, the decisive influence on losses during soybean harvesting was confirmed by the type of header and technological adjustments of the combine.