Harvesting And Storage

• 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.

• 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/-

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.
• Cost of the unit is Rs. 15,000 /-

• Dry milling system to remove the seed coat.
• It has cylindrical abrasion disc type stones.
• Pearling efficiency is 80 - 85%.

• The adults and grubs feed on the sorghum grains.
• The damage can be identified by the presence of irregular holes on the grains.
• The adult is a small dark brown weevil with spots on the elytra.
• The white apodous grub feeds inside the grain.

• The white apodous grubs with brown head, develop within the grains by making round tunnel.
• The adult is dark brown beetle with the head bent under thorax.

• The caterpillars feed on the internal contents of the grain. The damaged grains have holes of 1 mm diameter.
• The moth is yellowish white with pale forewings and uniformly grey, pointed hind wings with fringes of hairs.

• The caterpillars web together the grains and feed within.
• It mainly attacks broken grains.
• The adult moth is greyish brown.

• Clean the entire godown before storing the grains to eliminte the various stages of pests.
• Reduce moisture content of grains below 12% by drying to prevent buildup of pests.
• Dry all the bags, storage bins in the sun to kill the insects present in them.
• Remove all the broken grain by seiving and stitch all torn bags before filling the grains.
• Treat the walls, dunnage materials and ceilings of empty godown with malathion 50 EC @
• 10 ml/litre or dichlorvos 76 WSC @ 7 ml/litre. Use 3 litres of spray solution per 100 sq.m.
• Maintain good storage condition by providing dunnage and leaving gangway for aeration, inspection and prevention of moisture seepage.
• If grains are meant for seed purpose treat them with monocrotophos or chlorpyriphos @ 4 ml/kg.