Harvesting light crops can cause some headaches, with special attention to the front required to ensure every precious grain is gathered.

We caught up with Glen Reithmuller at the Dowerin Field Days. 

Glen is an agricultural engineer with the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development based in Merredin, Western Australia and says that light crops require a sharp knife and may also need extension of the finger reel to sweep crop into the conventional front or draper-belt. 

Making sure the knife and ledger plates are sharp and in top condition is the first step. 

Glen says that short crops can also sit on the deck just behind the knife, so a little help to feed it onto the draper or conventional front may be required.

Glen uses corflute attached to the reel fingers to create extended reach and with the corflute section brushing just over the knife to assist crop feed.

Only one piece of corflute is required per revolution of the finger section.

5mm thick corflute, is marked before hole-punching and zip-tying to the fingers on the reel to sweep over the top of the knife as the reel rotates.

Glen recommends randomising the pattern of positioning the corflute sections to avoid giving the harvester driver a headache.