Harvest season is upon us again. While we are not into harvest fully, it will not be long. As we move into full harvest season there are few considerations for both our machines and safety so that we are ready.
First I would start with equipment maintenance. We could focus most of a newsletter on the maintenance of the machine, but I am going to try to provide a succinct checklist as a reminder of daily considerations.
First thing in the morning, check:
After start up allow the system to warm up at idle for 2 to 4 minutes and engage the systems to warm hydraulic oil before beginning to harvest.
Around lunch or midday:
The preseason and daily maintenance of these machines is critical for an efficient and timely harvest. Once we are satisfied that we are ready to start picking cotton, we need to think about safety during harvest. Once of the first and most aggravating parts of harvest is moving equipment from field to field. Just to put it into perspective, most of our machines are either on 36- or 38-inch-wide rows, which means the header width on the machine is around 18 to 19 ft wide. A “typical” lane width on a road in Georgia is 12 ft for an interstate, and can be as narrow as 9 ft on smaller back roads. Just to put this into perspective, if you are on a “wider” road, you have about 24 ft of total clearance, but the cotton picker head will use all but 5 to 6 ft of the road. Machines road slow, people are in a hurry, and it is difficult to see beside and behind you when in a machine this size. Do your best to be cognizant of others on the road.
Now while in the field, keep an eye out on terrain. I can say I have seen both pictures and personally this year major washes throughout some of our fields from heavy rainfall events we received. Be careful as you harvest, you most likely have found most of these spots while spraying, but in some cases the width of the sprayer allows you to traverse much wider areas of the field, while you are limited to under a 20 ft width for harvest. Falling into a big wash can cause significant damage to the header of a machine.
During harvest if the machine is having issues such as pulling whole plants or you have an issue wrapping or unloading a module and start working around the header of the machine, do this with extreme caution. Unless it is absolutely necessary to have the header running shut it off to prevent anything from being pulled into it.
If you have someone in the field helping with harvest or tracking a research trial, ensure that both they and you know where they are when you are picking, turning around, and unloading modules. I know people want to be helpful, but limited sight on these machines and all of the moving parts makes being near them dangerous.
Another consideration during harvest is transporting and unloading modules. Again, for the most part, this is straight forward but have a plan on where you are going to stage modules. Mow out and clean that area, make sure there are no obstructions, ensure module trucks have adequate access and when unloading make sure other equipment and personnel are clear. Obstacles including cotton stalks, weeds etc. can damage module wrap and cause problems with modules being transported and potential plastic contamination.
Do your best to not get in a hurry and reduce as many mistakes as possible during harvest. Take care of yourself and your employees.
On-Board Module Weighing System
One other item to discuss during the harvest season is the on-board handler module weighing system. This system can be a valuable tool to be used by Extension, farmers, industry and researchers to obtain accurate in-field module weights. However, if you plan to use the system for any type of comparison please go through the calibration procedure. You should perform this calibration procedure at least on an annual basis. It should be performed with the accumulator empty and the machine at idle. A very short video on the calibration procedure can be found at https://www.planthealthexchange.org/cotton/Pages/GROW-COT-10-20-271.aspx. My blog post at UGA contains some more information on this procedure and yield monitor calibration: https://precisionagirrigation.extension.uga.edu/2025/09/how-to-calibrate-handler-weight-on-a-john-deere-cotton-picker/.
Additionally, to this video I was fortunate enough to have led a national effort a few years ago on the performance of the system. We were able to incorporate over 800 comparisons of the on-board system to field scales. The results of this study can be found here: https://iipa.uga.edu/docs/iipa/presentations/Porter-On-Board-Module-Weight-Evaluation-2022-Beltwide-Cotton-Conf.pdf. I would recommend that this system not be utilized for data that you plan to publish, but it is an excellent in field trial evaluation tool.
While harvest is a busy time of year and we are trying to finalize the season remember tokeep farm safety at the forefront of your mind during the long days on the machines and a few other items to remember are properly preparing your machine, being as safe as possible during harvest, and utilizing available technology on your machine to your advantage
As always, if you have any questions about anything you have read in this artile or anything else associated with cotton harvest please reach out to either your local UGA County Extension Agent or the Georgia Cotton Commission and we will get you the information you need. Hopefully this article helps you some during harvest, I pray for a safe and timely harvest for everyone.