By Alice McFarlane

Boosting on-farm profitability by getting the most from harvest equipment

Jul 18, 2025 | 11:42 AM

In today’s high-cost, low-margin environment, grain and row crop farmers can’t afford to leave yield and profit in the field.

Whether it’s canola, wheat, soybeans, or other crops harvested with a combine, harvest optimization expert Marcel Kringe is urging farmers to focus on one of the most overlooked, yet most impactful, management practices: measuring harvest loss to fine-tune combine calibration.

“Combine grain loss is one of the biggest invisible threats to profitability,” Kringe said. “Most farmers assume their machines are performing efficiently, but without measuring actual loss, they’re often losing more than they realize.”

Kringe said combines are powerful and complex machines, but they’re not set-it-and-forget-it systems. When key settings are not properly dialled in, grain can be damaged or lost. And, because that loss happens behind the machine, it’s easy to miss.

“If the rotor is spinning too fast, it can damage kernels or push material through too aggressively. If fan speed is off, it will influence the separation and retention of the grain,” he said. “It’s all about balance, and even small calibration errors can lead to significant losses. It may not be something the driver is doing wrong, but rather a problem with the combine itself.”

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Kringe said if you’re harvesting canola at 45 bushels per acre and losing three bushels per acre, that amounts to 6.67 per cent of the crop left in the field. At a market price of $14.87 per bushel, that loss equals $44.61 per acre. Multiplied across 1,000 acres, that’s $44,610 in lost revenue.

The numbers for wheat are just as striking. A three-bushel loss in a 55-bushel-per-acre Canada Western Red Spring wheat (CWRS) crop equals 5.45 per cent of the yield left behind. At $7.66 per bushel, that’s a loss of $22.98 per acre, or $22,980 in lost income over 1,000 acres.

“These aren’t theoretical numbers,” Kringe said. “They’re real dollars that could be in your pocket – but only if you’re measuring what’s being left behind.”

Many growers rely solely on factory combine presets or in-cab loss sensors, which Kringe said aren’t enough.

“Factory settings are a starting point, not a precision solution. And built-in sensors often can’t account for key variables like terrain, machine wear, or crop type,” he explained. “If you want accurate data, you need to get out behind the combine and measure actual loss in the field to calibrate those loss sensors properly. In other words, the loss sensor display needs a measured benchmark from what’s going out the back to provide useful information to the operator.”

That’s where drop pans come in. Drop pans collect real data, not estimates. Depending on your machine, they tell you where the loss is occurring – from the header, rotor, or cleaning shoe.

To make harvest loss measurement faster, safer, and more precise, Bushel Plus developed the SmartPan System, the most advanced remote drop pan solution on the market.

Using a remote magnetic release, the SmartPan mounts within seconds underneath any combine and collects a grain loss sample during normal field operation. That sample is then processed using the Bushel Plus Air Separator, which removes chaff and debris to isolate clean grain. The grain is weighed with a digital scale, and the results are logged instantly using the SmartDrop mobile app, according to Kringe.

“This system gives growers everything they need to take quick, corrective action. In just a few minutes, you go from guessing to knowing and from losing money to saving it.”

Compatible with all major crops harvested by a combine, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, barley, rice, and milo, the SmartPan System is endorsed and used by leading equipment manufacturers, including John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, CLAAS, and Fendt.

Kringe said improving harvest profitability starts with knowing exactly how much grain you’re losing and why.

“You’ve already invested in seed, fertilizer, crop protection, fuel, and labour,” Kringe said. “Don’t let all that effort and expense go to waste because of outdated combine settings. With the right tool and just a few quick checks, you can turn lost yield into recovered revenue and real profit.”

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com