Sharing a grain drier between two farms 20 miles apart might not ideal, but for two Cambridgeshire farming families it has proved to be the right move, as Nick Fone reports
Michael Cottage and his son Chris farm 300ha (750 acres) close to Haverhill while Peter and Ian Wombwell's 240ha (600-acre) arable unit lies just on the outskirts of Cambridge. The distance between the two farms isn't huge, but shuffling a conventional tub-type mobile drier backwards and forwards would prove a real headache.
So when things turned wet last year the two businesses opted for a slightly different approach. Prompted by the atrocious weather of the past two harvests, both father-and-son partnerships wondered how best to tackle the heaps of damp grain in store.
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| With a 180hp Massey 8160 up front, the TurboDan TraylerDryer has plenty of power on tap and is capable of drying 15t batches down from 18% in 1.5 hours. |
"We knew we needed a drier, but didn't want to invest in a big static unit that would tie up a lot of capital and may well only get used occasionally," says Michael Cottage.
"A mobile machine looked like the best option, but they're not generally designed to be shifted long distances on the road.
"We'd heard of trailer-driers and decided to take a look down that route."
Late last year Essex firm Tey Farm Systems took on the import rights for Danish-built Turbodan Trayler Dryers and, as luck would have it, had a 15t 2001 TD15 model in stock with just 700 hours on the clock.
"We liked the simplicity of the Turbodan; it's basically a downsized drying-floor on wheels," says Peter Wombwell.
"Really it's just a trailer with a mesh floor and a burner up front. Because you load it with a bucket and empty it by tipping it up, there are very few moving parts to go wrong.
"We were offered the used machine at a really good rate, so we went for it. In the end it cost each farm about £17,000."
When it arrived last November the Turbodan was put straight to work drying grain just before collection. Both farms are able to hold grain in store at up to 18% moisture and then dry it down to 15% before lorries arrive to haul it away through the winter.
Using cold, humid air, the partnership found it took up to 1.5 hours to bring a 15t batch of 18% grain down the 3% required. In summer this is closer to one hour, with a further half an hour to cool it.
How it works
Originally dreamt up and built by Cork farmer Niall O'Farrell, the Trayler Dryer has been around for nearly 25 years. In 2001 the design rights were sold to Danish entrepreneur Svend Lassen and his company - Turbodan - has been building the 15t, 18t and 25t units in their distinctive yellow-and-green livery ever since.
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