Grain Drying: Reliable Gadgets and New Technology
When I first got home from college, we only had 9 grain bins. The original 8 built over several years in the 1970s are arranged the typical bob truck style semi-circle set up. Each holding roughly 6500 bushels each. Now the story in the grain business goes like this - we sell them on bushels of corn they will hold, we count the room under the floor and in the peak and you pay by the bushel! My Dad added another, larger bin with approximately 25,000 bushels of storage in the 80s. There was no office or scales, so he had to count loads and estimate the bushels in each bin by measuring.
Geometry - and you thought you would never use it! HA! We used it quite a bit when estimating grain inside a grain bin until we had scales and an inventory system. But when I got home from college we did not even have a computer yet so lots of paper and pencils. I actually still use this today to make sure we have enough room in a bin for another load or two. Just last weekend we looked in each bin from the top and calculated the number of bushels it could still hold. Harvest is moving fast and our bins are filling up!
Over the next 3 decades we added to our facility many other grain bins and systems along with a fully automated seed cleaning facility and 20 foot container loading area. As with any farm we get more knowledge as we go and make better decisions with the next build.
I learned to dry grain the old-fashioned way- with a Motomco moisture tester, a big thermometer and the chart from the company to convert the information into grain moisture by type of grain. We could test each load and get an average grain moisture for the bin. Then came the other very useful gadgets - the same thermometer and a sling psychrometer. I would love to shout out to those who have used a sling psychrometer and I hope you will comment below about those days on your farm! The psychrometer measures the relative humidity of the ambient air and the thermometer measures the air temperature. With these two pieces of information, you can use the University of Arkansas website to calculate the equilibrium moisture content of the grain.
Motomco Grain Moisture Meter
There is quite a bit to learn about drying grain and especially drying grain when you are doing it all manually - with the instruments I am referring to in this post. The University of Arkansas has extensive information and help on their website. I am sure every land grant university with grain in their state has some of the same information. Rice drying however is extremely sensitive and quality can be hurt if you do not know the best methods to dry rice. I highly recommend reaching out to your county agent who can get you in touch with someone to help you learn about grain drying.
Top - Sling Psychrometer Bottom - Thermometer
I also recommend understanding all the grain drying basics even though there are systems out there that can “do it for you”. In my experience in working with one of the automated systems is that all electronics fail. I have a friend in the technology business involved in home and business entertainment both sound and visual. He told me long ago he had job security because whatever he sold it would fail or become obsolete. All he had to do was to provide excellent service and be trustworthy. He is correct and the same goes for agricultural technology including automated bin systems. By understanding the basics of grain drying I have been able to detect a problem before the sensor failed or the tech guy discovered it.
For our operation, grain bins are more consistent in their ability to be profitable but also the most hated. It is hard work and the conditions are too hot or too cold and always dusty. The toughest positions to fill on our farm are at the bins. In fact, I am currently trying to fill 1-2 jobs here. We have long time employees ready to retire and we cannot find people to hire to replace them. Not to mention that there are very few experienced grain managers who understand maintaining grain quality and are willing to work in a rural area. Maybe someone who is reading this will think - “That is the job for me!” or at least I hope so:)