Many years ago, the common method of harvesting grains was the binder, which may possibly still be used on some small farms.
Harvesting wheat refers to the activities performed to obtain the cereal kernels of the plant for grain or the entire plant for forage or silage uses, These activities are accomplished by machines that cut, thresh, screen, clean, bind, pick and shell the crops in the field.
Binders have been replaced nearly everywhere by combines, large and small. These machines cut and thresh the crop and are usually self-propelled. Spring wheat may be windrowed or swathed before threshing.
Harvesting technologies normally remove material larger than the grain such as plant parts and material significantly smaller like sand and dirt.
The grain is stored in the harvest machine while the remainder of the plant is discharged back onto the field.
After combining, most spring and winter is either stored in the farms for a time or promptly taken by truck to local elevators where it is loaded on railway cars and carried to terminal markets.
Harvesting wheat in United States
