Tips For End-of-season Combine Clean-out

By: Meaghan Anderson

Before the combine gets stashed away for winter, an end-of-season clean-out is a way to check the combine over for necessary maintenance and remove material that could act as food or bedding for pests, like mice or raccoons. These animals can cause damage by chewing wires or nesting in the engine.

Cleaning out a combine also removes weed seeds and helps keep them from spreading to fields next harvest season. There are many places for weed seeds to hide inside a combine. Nooks and crannies on the outside of a combine also harbor weed seed.

A front-to-back and top-to-bottom combine clean-out is worth the time and effort. It’s necessary for some farmers to do it between fields when producing identity-preserved grains or other specialty crops. However, all farmers should complete a full clean-out after harvest. And it’s not just combines; grain carts and augers should be cleaned out, too.

Refer to this publication
A publication explaining steps to follow for an end-of-season combine clean-out can help you check the machine before winter. View the publication at the North Central Agriculture and Natural Resource Academy.