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By Alice McFarlane

Grain Drying

Managing stored grain

Oct 28, 2019 | 3:14 PM

Larger bin sizes in today’s operations can present new challenges for producers.

Small diameter bins such as those that hold 2,000 bushels or less, cool quickly and relatively even. Larger bins take longer to cool, can have large temperature gradients and represent a greater time commitment to manage.

Crops Extension Specialist Kim Stonehouse said this year there is the added challenge of some very high moisture crops due the difficult fall. Much of the grain will have to be conditioned, monitored, turned and dried.

“Conditioning starts with cooling the grain. Recommendations have always suggested to cool the grain to below 10 celsius as soon as possible. Hopefully this has already occurred. However, due to the insulation effect in larger bins, there is still the potential to have temperature gradients from the outside to the centre,” Stonehouse said. “It’s not uncommon for larger bins to have grain temperature in the centre that have changed very little since harvest even though outside air temperatures have dropped considerably. This large temperature differential may lead to increased moisture migration, resulting in problems with mold and insects.”

Stonehouse said to help reduce this moisture migration, focus more on maintaining an even grain temperature until the grain gets close to zero celsius. This can be accomplished through aeration or by moving grain. In extreme situations storage volumes may need to be reduced by only partially filling larger bins.

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“Moving small amounts or turning the grain to control temperature and moisture migration can be effective if it’s the core that is able to be moved. This is easily accomplished with a central unloading system such as hopper bottoms. With large flat bottom bins it is very difficult to move just the core and quite often the entire bin will have to be turned.” Stonehouse said.

Regularly monitoring grain storage for temperature change always gives the best chance to address concerns before they become a problem.

“However, with the high moisture contents of some of this year’s grain, continuous monitoring, application of aeration and turning bins until the grain can be dried will be critical to saving some crops.” Stonehouse said.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF