Can ADS Cleaning Recover Good Peas From a Weevil-Damaged Lot?

Keep the focus on the good peas

Weevil-damaged peas can leave you wondering how much good grain is worth recovering. Metra ADS separates lighter unwanted material, and Metra has experience cleaning insect-damaged grain. Testing your peas can help show whether the damaged seeds separate from the good grain and which settings suit the lot.

Why feeding inside the pea matters

Pea weevil, *Bruchus pisorum*, damages the seed itself. A USDA Agricultural Research Service abstract, accepted January 5, 1998, explains that larvae consume a large part of the seeds they infest.

That missing seed material is the connection to airflow cleaning. Where feeding leaves damaged peas lighter and responding differently to airflow, there is an opportunity to separate them from the remaining good peas. The useful question is how distinctly those peas separate in your lot—not simply whether weevil damage is present.

Pea leaf weevil is a different pest. NDSU Extension’s April 2023 guide explains that its larvae feed on root nodules. That field injury is different from pea-weevil larvae feeding inside pea seeds.

How Metra ADS approaches the cleaning job

ADS uses airflow to separate grain into fractions, including lighter unwanted material. Changing impeller speed changes the airflow, allowing the separation to be tuned to the crop and material.

Metra’s operating experience with ADS and ADS-CDC includes separating insect-damaged grain to help recover the valuable grain remaining in a lot. That experience makes testing your affected peas a useful next step; the recovery from pea-weevil damage depends on how your lot separates.

The goal is to move damaged peas into a separate fraction while keeping good peas in the cleaned grain.

What would make a sample result useful?

Metra helps choose equipment and settings using a customer’s material. A representative sample gives the discussion something concrete: the peas you want to keep and the damaged peas you want separated.

At a sample test or arranged demonstration, useful questions to discuss are:

– Which damaged peas separate, and which remain in the cleaned grain?
– How much good grain goes into the rejects?
– At what operating rate was that separation achieved?

Keep reject weight separate from good-grain loss. Rejects can contain both unwanted damaged peas and good peas; the total rejected weight alone does not tell you how much good grain was lost. Discussing both fractions with Metra helps you understand what the separation accomplishes for your peas.

Start with the peas causing trouble

Tell Metra about your affected peas and the cleaning job you need done. Metra can help select equipment and settings and discuss testing a representative sample or arranging a warehouse demonstration.

Explore Metra ADS cleaners and ADS-CDC cleaners, then contact Metra at 701-515-0488. Arrange sample handling or a warehouse visit with Metra before shipping peas or traveling.