In many grain producing areas in Brazil, including north-central Mato Grosso, there are two harvests per year, with soybeans normally grown in the first harvest. This optimization of land use requires that soybeans be planted as soon as the rainy season begins (usually at the end of September) and that the harvest be carried out between January and March (depending on the variety planted), so that it is possible to plant the second crop of the year. The general recommendation is that soybeans are ready to be harvested at the R7 stage, which mechanically – the most commonly used method for harvesting soybeans – is unfeasible both due to the high water content of the grains and the plant, which is still physiologically active. However, delaying the harvest after the point of physiological maturation necessarily results in qualitative losses in the field due to exposure to pest attack, high metabolism of the product and weather conditions that can provide cycles of drying and rewetting, which can cause wrinkling and /or disruption of the grain or seed integument. Thus, due to the high water content at harvest time, the application of a desiccant herbicide to accelerate natural drying and, consequently, harvesting, is an ordinary operation of paramount importance among soybean producers who aim to preserve the quality of this product, in addition to making it possible to plan the planting of a second crop. The way this management is carried out (type, mode of action and time when the desiccant is applied) can affect the quality of the grains, making its use unfeasible for both seeds and grains. To get around this problem, producers try to plant cultivars with different cycles or apply disenchantment in stages. Thus, despite the technical recommendation to apply the desiccant at the R7 development stage, some producers apply the desiccant already at the R6 stage in order to accelerate the grain harvesting process. The question that arises with this management and that this project intends to answer is whether the grains harvested when desiccation is performed earlier (R6) present a significant qualitative difference in relation to those harvested when the desiccant is applied at later maturation stages (R7 or R8). In addition, other secondary factors may be linked to the point of soybean harvest and may alter its post-harvest, such as drying speed, characteristic shape of the grains and the quality of the oil produced. These results will support, or not, soybean producers to expand the harvest window, allowing, for example, to optimize soil use. The main objective is to propose the most suitable maturation stage for application of the desiccant in soybeans regarding the physical, chemical and physiological quality of the grains. Thus, this work is expected to gather information in this regard in order to present a technical response to producers about the effect of this management on the final quality of soybeans. It is also expected that the results will assist the scientific community in the sense of ratifying what has already been recommended in relation to the application of the desiccant in the soybean crop aiming at its harvest. The work will also seek to raise answers about the effect that the application of desiccants at different stages of crop development will bring to the grains during their pre-processing (mainly in drying) and in storage (mainly on the chemical characteristics of the oil. (Google translation)