Confirm the crop is ready

Check the field information and crop colour before entering. With seasonal growth enabled, work inside the crop harvest window and do not leave a ready crop until it withers.

Match the harvesting system

Cereals, canola and soybeans use a combine with a grain header. Corn grain uses a corn header; corn or other compatible crops chopped for chaff use a forage harvester. Potatoes, sugar beet, vegetables, cotton, rice, peas, green beans, grapes, olives and sugar cane use specialist harvesters.

Plan unloading before you start

Place trailers or an auger wagon where they can reach the harvester without blocking the work. For harvesters with a bunker, unload before the tank becomes a bottleneck. For forage harvesters that have no internal crop tank, keep a trailer alongside from the start.

Procedure

1. Check the crop is harvest-ready and in season.
2. Fit the correct header or prepare the crop-specific harvester.
3. If harvesting wheat/barley/oat and you need straw, enable straw swath before the pass.
4. Unfold and prepare the machine, then align with the crop edge.
5. Lower/activate the header and harvest straight passes.
6. Monitor bunker fill level and unload into a compatible trailer as needed.
7. For a forage harvester, run a trailer alongside continuously.
8. Finish narrow missed strips and headlands.
9. Take the crop to storage, an animal system, a selling point or the next production site immediately if the crop cannot be stored.

Equipment & tools

Open an equipment page for what the machine does, how to set it up and how to operate it.

Alternative options

Practical tips

• Lease specialist harvesters when acreage is too small to justify ownership.
• Place transport vehicles before harvest starts so the expensive harvester does not sit idle.

Research notes