diff --git a/combo/config.template.json b/combo/config.template.json
index 7baf6547e1e49c0d0f3d0e441546cd7893329506..93332c54d3cbc0c0cba97084e7853556258e1495 100644
--- a/combo/config.template.json
+++ b/combo/config.template.json
@@ -252,7 +252,6 @@
       },
       "batch_size": 1,
       "shuffle": true,
-      "batches_per_epoch": 64,
       "quiet": false
     }
   },
diff --git a/combo/main.py b/combo/main.py
index 3884f0511d8a0903a19ab0fb451da0827600b3d0..256e75aed0641d64b6b049d92563d5605badfda9 100755
--- a/combo/main.py
+++ b/combo/main.py
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def get_defaults(dataset_reader: Optional[DatasetReader],
                                                    )
 
     if not training_data_loader:
-        training_data_loader = default_data_loader(dataset_reader, training_data_path, FLAGS.batch_size)
+        training_data_loader = default_data_loader(dataset_reader, training_data_path, FLAGS.batch_size, FLAGS.batches_per_epoch)
     else:
         if training_data_path:
             training_data_loader.data_path = training_data_path
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ def get_defaults(dataset_reader: Optional[DatasetReader],
                            str(training_data_loader.data_path), prefix=prefix)
 
     if FLAGS.validation_data_path and not validation_data_loader:
-        validation_data_loader = default_data_loader(dataset_reader, validation_data_path, FLAGS.batch_size)
+        validation_data_loader = default_data_loader(dataset_reader, validation_data_path, FLAGS.batch_size, FLAGS.batches_per_epoch)
     elif FLAGS.validation_data_path and validation_data_loader:
         if validation_data_path:
             validation_data_loader.data_path = validation_data_path