saving chaff and straw

[dfarms11]

Anyone have any ideas as to how to save everything that comes out the back of the combine without spending a lot of money?

[tirwin]

To your question about saving everything that comes out of the back of the combine for little money. Little money is always relative, but we have used a system I will describe. We lowered the front end of the straw chopper about 3 inches with triangular plates that were added into the mounting with bolts. On the back of the cleaning shoe we mounted a pan ( the surface was stepped ,as is your grain pan in the combine itself). This was mounted onto the cleaning shoe with hinges ,and the back suspended on chains to allow its movement with the shoe. This pan and its shaking action moved material from over the sieves into the opening at the front of the straw chopper and then it was blown with the straw into the trailing chaff wagon. My experience says , --only for light crops and as always it requires a bit more watching and attention than normal combining. Hope it may help.