Production Blog
Dan Davidson DTN Agronomist

Thursday 03/11/10
Dropped Ears

We combined corn mostly in December after it had dried down to aboout 20 percent. Corn was still standing and the grain was wet and stalk strength still seemed good.

But now that the snow is melting we see too many husked and dehusked ears lying on the ground and much greater than usual and I am wondering why this happened.

Was it the combine, combine operator or shank strength? We know it wasn't lodged or downed corn and stalk strength was good from the pinch test so I doubt it was weak shank.

So was it the combine or combine operator? I was shagging corn away from the combine so I know the operator was driving slowly and paying attention to business and he always seems to take good care of his combine.

However I have noticed that his combine and cornhead (a Gleaner) seems to drop too many has corn ears but I don't have a clue why. This spring I am going to ask my crop consultant to estimate how many down ears there are per acre and then will shell some ears and estimate yield loss. But this data won't tell me what it happened.

But what I don't know is why some cornheads seem to knock off or eject more corn ears than other cornheads. If you have some suggestions or ideas on how cornheads knock of or eject ears or why we lost so many ears when stalk strength was good post a comment here, call me at 402-968-0942 or email me at daniel.davidson@dtn.com.
Posted at 1:26PM CST 03/11/10 by Dan Davidson
Comments (11)
How close was the header running to the ground. The higher the better for keeping ears in.
Posted by Aaron R. Ritchie at 2:18PM CST 03/11/10
We had a field that we finished in December that had snow cover, corn was short and the stand wasn't perfect and I had trouble while running the combine. The stand hurt more that anything, the incoming stalks help keep the ears from falling out.
Posted by Aaron R. Ritchie at 2:46PM CST 03/11/10
The speed of the gathering chains in relation to ground speed can also have an effect on ears flying out of the corn head. Rosedan
Posted by Wes Nelson at 4:13PM CST 03/11/10
One bushel is an average sized ear every 125 feet of row (or so). The math can vary, based on what average means, but that's a good starting point. The above comments about header height and gathering chain speed are dead on. Yield monitor will tell you that the slower the chains and auger the better - provided that you're not bridging or plugging in front of the feederhouse. Also, unless you can stay dead centered on the rows, the rubber ear savers will actually knock ears off as they come in. This is especially a problem if you are mismatched on planter size versus cornhead size. Finally, in my opinion, the Agco (Gleaner/Challenger) cornhead is one of the worst heads around for grain loss - both in shelling and ear loss.
Posted by Unknown at 5:43PM CST 03/11/10
Aaron - that is the downside for not combining because I don't have a clue how high the head was running.
Posted by Daniel Davidson at 7:44PM CST 03/11/10
Touche! I agree the Gleaner cornhead is worse than a New Holland or John Deere cornhead and I have experience with both and neither seemed to drop ears like this Gleaner does.
Posted by Daniel Davidson at 7:46PM CST 03/11/10
I have also noticed that some rubber auger paddles are bad to sling out ears.
Posted by PRESTON ARRINGTON at 8:29PM CST 03/11/10
we run a gleaner corn head and after the first day we put a wire shield over center atrea to keep ears from being thrown out by auger and feed chain , it has corrected the main problem
Posted by TOM KARSTENSEN at 7:19AM CST 03/12/10
You don't breed corn to stand till March and if you did the yield would go down. I will never forget one farmer saying I thought my problem was my John Deere header until I tried the corn you recommend and no more ear drop.
Posted by Ed Winkle at 7:23AM CST 03/12/10
Get rid of the gleaner. Those heads are bad news.
Posted by Unknown at 7:51AM CST 03/12/10
Some of the problem could be corn variety. Some shanks hold on pretty tight and it takes alot of force to snap them off which can cause the ears to bounce, sometimes out of the header. If you had more than one variety, is the problem worse in some areas than others?
Posted by Unknown at 8:49AM CST 03/12/10
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