When the crop matures, the leaves turn yellow and present a dried
up appearance. The grains will become hard and firm.
It is best to harvest the ear heads when the grains have 21-24% moisture.
Cut the ear heads alone leaving stover or straw in the field to dry
for a week.
Dry the ear heads and thresh using a mechanical thresher or by drawing
a stone roller over the ear heads or by using cattle.
Dry the seeds to 12% moisture level.
Cut the dried straw and stack.
The dried grains can be stored in gunnybags or in storage bins.
Provide dunnage and leave gangway in the godowns.
Mechanical Harvesting
Fodder Sorghum Harvester:
This machine will do the Harvesting and windrowing of the fodder sorghum.
It is a modified version of IRRI reaper consisting of cutter bar assembly,
gathering header, star wheels, conveyors, hitch frame attachment with
an adjustable skid. The whole unit is attached to an IRRI designed power
tiller.
The front assembly has been suitably modified with one more set of
gathering header assembly consisting of headers with star wheel assembly,
conveyor flat belt with lugs provided at a height of 45 cm from the
existing conveyor unit. The additional header assembly is fixed exactly
above the lower header assembly. The main frame supporting all above
components are also suitably modified. The power for the top conveyor
belt is taken by extending the shaft from lower conveyor belt.
The cost of the unit is Rs. 60,000/-
Sorghum Pearler:
This is to remove the hull/seed coat from sorghum and
other millets like little millets and finger millets.
The pearler consists of a cylindrical abrasion rotor made up of a
series of abrasion stone discs mounted on a horizontal shaft without
any gap between them. The rotor so formed is mounted in a metal case
with a clearance of 1.5 cm at the sides and around the bottom of the
roller. Two screws of pitch length 1.5 cm each are provided at the inlet
end. An aspirator is provided at the outlet end to suck and remove husk.
Grains are fed at one end of the pearling unit at a uniform rate
and collected at the other end. The level of grain inside the unit is
adjusted during operation for efficient operation. This cycle of operation
has to be repeated depending upon the extent of hull/seed coat to be
removed.
Harvesting And Storage
