Nearly 15 years of Ohio State University research has confirmed that potential yield is cut by 10% to 15% on some soils as a result of machinery compaction, but automatic steering has Randall Reeder excited that soil compaction from harvest activities can be controlled.

Design improvements may have reduced combine fires in recent years, but "they are still a problem," warns John Shutske. The University of Minnesota engineer reports that, on average, there are around 700 major combine fires reported each season, costing farmers over $10 million.

As long as grain isn't blowing out the back of a combine and tank samples are clean, combine operators traditionally don't mess with cleaning shoe adjustments. But, says agricultural engineer Graeme Quick, "Beyond cleaning grain and affecting losses, the shoe has a big impact on combine capacity."

Many producers think calibrating a yield monitor consists of harvesting a tank full of grain and calling that a load on the monitor," says University of Nebraska engineer Paul Jasa, but this procedure only provides one calibration point.

Setting a combine to lose no more than 1% of the crop yield may seem like a tall order. But University of Wisconsin engineer Ron Schuler insists that greater losses than that shouldn't be tolerated, and says payback for capping losses at 1% is immediate.

Don't let problems with processing, headers and grain tanks slow you down during the busy harvest season. Machinery Editor Dave Mowitz provides these troubleshooting guides to help keep you going this fall.

A farmer in Minnesota was dealing on some Byron sweet corn harvesting equipment and wanted to bounce the deal off auction expert Greg Peterson. "Sweet corn harvesting equipment doesn't show up for sale at auction every day, so it's not the easiest stuff in the world to assign current values to," he says.

Several late-model combines and tractors sold at this recent consignment auction. See which tractor brought nearly $100,000.