Running the farm grainstore through harvest is never the most
heavily contested job. The dust, rats and frequent breakdowns can
make it a miserable way to spend the summer.
But handling and storing grain is now more important than ever
with quality issues and disease control putting more pressure on
how crops are held in store. Three successive tricky harvests have
brought the issue ever closer to the forefront of growers'
minds.
This month's UK Grain
event at the Newark showground provided those looking at their
storage options with the opportunity for some free advice.
Bill Basford, an independent ex-ADAS machinery consultant,
Andrew Kneeshaw, Farm
Energy Centre specialist and Bill Cragg, independent East
Anglian agricultural engineer, were on hand to answer people's
questions about getting the most from existing kit and how new
investments should be planned.
"In the last few years many of the questions have related to how
farmers should spend their money on new facilities," explains Mr
Basford.
"But this year there was much more of a focus on making the most
of what's available."
Many of the questions focused on how best to handle damp grain
in store how deep in can safely be piled up, how best to cool it
and whether stirrers are a worthwhile investment.
Here are a few examples:
Q: How high can I pile up grain without it getting hot and
losing quality?
A: Without stirrers it's really only safe to heap grain up to
3.6m (12ft) deep if you're to avoid it heating up.
If you've got a stirrer - whether walk-behind or gantry-mounted
- then you can take it to 4.3m without any worries.
Q: I grow about 500t of wheat and barley every year. Should I
go for on-floor drying or a batch-drier?
A: That's a relatively small volume of grain to be building a
dedicated store for. Most growers in that situation would spend a
bit of money converting an existing shed as a floor-store and would
buy a mobile-drier to deal with it.
If you've got no existing shed then a ventilated-floor store
might be a good route to go down. Wooden floors are fairly
competitively priced (about £45/sq m or £5/sq ft) but make sure
they are laid properly as nail splits can be a real issue.
Q: Should I go for a diesel or electrically driven fan for my
floor-store?
A: An engine driven fan has the advantage that it raises ambient
air temperature by about 4C, which equates to a reduction in
relative humidity of about 16%, so it's good for drying. However,
that leaves no option for cooling as you'll always be blowing hot
air into store.
Q: Are there any grain drying systems that can use renewable
energy?
A: Because the window for drying grain is relatively narrow (6-8
weeks) the set-up can't be vastly expensive - which most renewable
energy schemes tend to be. A biogas digester produces excess heat
which could be harnessed to dry grain but there's got to be another
use for that heat for the rest of the year to make the investment
justifiable.
Q: I've been told mycotoxins develop in hot grain. What's the
best way of avoiding this?
A: Get the crop dry as quickly as possible and then the number
one priority is getting it down below 15C. For about £500 you can
get a clever controller that senses the temperature differential in
the ambient air and the crop in store and automatically switches
the fan on and off accordingly - a fantastic labour saver.
For
just under £500, Master
Drier customers can have their machine fitted with a
text-messaging service which will alert them to mechanical
failure, burner malfunction or when the drier has finished its
2-2.5 hour cycle.
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Visitors to UK Grain were able to put their
queries about drying, handling and storage to experts like
independent machinery specialist, Bill Basford.
New
Windows-based software for
Sinar's AP
moisture meter means that it no longer needs to be returned to
the manufacturer each year for calibration. The company sends
out a grain sample of predetermined moisture and the farm
office computer works out the meter's reading and adjusts
according. Initially the service will be offered free of
charge with a £100 a year subscription thereafter.
To
avoid the usual bashes and bumps that on-floor ducts receive,
Danish firm Danagri
has developed these tubular telescopic versions that can be
retracted from the heap before the loader goes in. Spaced 3.5m
apart, they'll reportedly condition grain piled up to 5m deep.
Available in 6m-30m lengths, they cost £80-£100/m.