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Written by administrator
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Wednesday, 01 April 2009 00:50 |
Key Check 8. Cut and threshed the crop at the right time.
Importance. Timely reaping and threshing ensure good grain quality, high market value, and consumer acceptance.
Reaping
too early results in a larger percentage of immature grains and in
lower milling recovery. Reaping too late leads to increased grain
shattering and excessive losses in terms of breakage during milling. Assessment of Key Check. Harvest/reap the crop when 1/5 or 20% of the grains at the base of the panicle are in hard dough stage. Press a g rain from the base of the panicle between the thumb and forefinger to assess hard dough stage. Most of the grains in the panicle will be golden yellow.
Recommendation to achieve Key Check - Thresh the palay not later than one day after reaping for WS and not later than two days for DS. Use a clean thresher wit
 h the correct machine settings. Harvest/reap at 20-25% grain moisture content in wet season and 18-21% moisture content in dry season. It is advisable to use a grain moisture meter.
Avoid piling the reaped crop in the field for more than a day as this results in heat buildup in the grain. This leads to grain discoloration and lowers the quality of milled rice.
Adjust blower to the correct speed (approx. 800 rpm) to provide good initial cleaning of the harvest. A high-speed setting of threshing drum results in higher grain damage while a low speed setting increases the amount of non-threshed grain and results in grain loss.
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Last Updated on Monday, 15 February 2010 08:50 |
Harvest Management
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