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Harvesting Safflower

Safflower should be harvested when the moisture content of the seed is 8% or less. Careful adjustment and operation of the combine will reduce seed losses and increase the seed quality. Many factors influence the maturation of safflower (soil moisture, variety, locality, weather, and other growing conditions). In general, harvesting can begin when leaves become dry and brown, with only a little green remaining on the late flower heads. Some late flower heads will be small and contain undeveloped seed. These add little to crop yield and should be ignored. All the seeds in the larger heads will be hard and can be hand-threshed readily. Safflower buyers require that the seed moisture be less than 8%. This low moisture requirement prevents heating, molding and deterioration in storage. Experience also indicates that a good job of harvesting cannot be done until seed moisture is below 8%.

Profit depends on careful harvesting. This means that the grower must give continuous attention to the maturity of the crop, the condition of the threshed seed and seed losses. With careful adjustment, grain combines with rasp-bar, angle-bar or spike tooth cylinders will harvest safflower satisfactorily. The shoe screens normally used for barley, wheat, or rice are recommended for safflower. When the crop is direct-combined, a reel will not be necessary unless the stand is too thin for proper feeding onto the header platform. When the stand is not thin, cut only enough of the plant to get the whole seed crop. If a reel is used, its speed should be no faster than the forward speed of the combine.

Windrowing. Windrowing should be used only when a serious weed problem has occurred or harvest schedules preclude timely safflower harvest. Direct harvesting at the proper time costs less and reduces the chance of seed loss resulting from wind or over drying in the windrow. Windrowing can be done up to 10 days before direct combining would normally be started without yield or oil content reduction. Seed moisture may be as high as 25% when windrowing is started but must dry to below 8% when harvest is completed. Usually 4 to 7 days of drying in the windrow will be required in late summer in California.

Standard self-propelled windrowers will do an excellent job of windowing safflower. Subsequently, harvester adjustments are the same as for direct combining and the use of a belt-type pickup attachment is recommended.

Safflower Contents | References [14]

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Modified: 10 Feb 2000 Comments to webmaster@agric.ucdavis.edu