Perdas de gr？os e distribui？？o de palha na colheita mecanizada de soja

considering that the harvest is the final step of a productive process and the losses should be kept within acceptable standards, the settings of harvesters should reduce quantitative losses and warrant high quality and sustainability of the productive system. this study aimed to determine the quantitative losses, straw distribution and operational characteristics of the harvester through the statistical process control, and to verify the quality of the harvesting operation. the study was conducted in santa juliana, state of minas gerais, brazil (19o18' s and 47o31' w). the area sampled consisted in 40 points distributed in rectangular grid, equidistant from 50 m, defined sequentially after harvest starting. at each point, we evaluated the water content of the grains, number of pods per plant; insertion height of first pod; plant of height; productivity; straw distribution and operational characteristics of the harvester. the grain loss caused by the harvester was outside the control limits, but within the acceptable standards of losses for soybean crop. the quality of the harvesting operation and adjustments of the harvester were dependent on the speed displacement. the straw distribution proved to be near of the desirable for no-tillage system. the use of control charts was efficient for identifying the points out of control and assessing the quality of harvesting process.