This research was carried out to evaluate two different harvesting procedures: hand harvesting and combine harvesting related to seed quality. For the combine harvesting, sets adjustment two were estabiished as follows: 1) combine ground speed of 4,5km/hours with reel peripheral speed 20% higher than the combine ground speed, threshing cylinder at 550 revolutions per minute (rpm), concave setting at about 20mm gap at the entrance point and 10mm gap at the discharge point; and 2) combine ground speed of 8km/hours with reel peripheral speed 40% higher than the combine ground speed, threshing cylinder at 800rpm, concave setting at about 8mm gap at the entrance point and 4mm at the discharge point. The experiment was conducted with the soybean cultivars EMBRAPA 4 and BR 37. To evaluate the seed quality, the following tests were performed: the amount of broken seeds (kg/ha); seed coat rupture - bruised seed (Chlorox test); tetrazolium test (vigor 1-3 and viability 1-5); standard germination and accelerated aging test and seed health (blotter) The set adjustment 1 showed statistically higher seed vigor levels and reduced amounts of broken seeds with seed coat rupture when compared to set of adjustment 2, however, both sets of adjustments resulted in statistically smaller seed vigor levels, and higher porcentages of mechanically damaged and broken (splitted) seeds when compared to hand harvested ones, for both cultivars. Better sanitary quality of the seeds were obtained from the hand harvest procedure compared with the mechanical harvest procedure.