Wheat refusing to dry

shakerator

Member
Location
LINCS
Does spring wheat grain take more drying than Winter wheat????

normally by this time of year no need to have fans on.

so in a 3.2m deep store with a wooden floor and 50hp fan with gas burner and humidity sensor which has been on since early september, the change in moisture appears to have been negligible in the top 1/3 of the heap. despite three passses with a 1.8m stirrer. agreed it was pretty wet when it went in (19%). the bottom is 15%, the middle 17 and the top not much less than 19%.

absolute wits end. might drag the lot out and bury it, that sick of looking at it.
may well be £200+ but no-one wants 17% wheat even in a famine.
do Tey Farm Services still sell Trailer driers? @Andrew K

how many btu is the heater and how many tonnes of grain ?
 

Andrew K

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex
Does spring wheat grain take more drying than Winter wheat????

normally by this time of year no need to have fans on.

so in a 3.2m deep store with a wooden floor and 50hp fan with gas burner and humidity sensor which has been on since early september, the change in moisture appears to have been negligible in the top 1/3 of the heap. despite three passses with a 1.8m stirrer. agreed it was pretty wet when it went in (19%). the bottom is 15%, the middle 17 and the top not much less than 19%.

absolute wits end. might drag the lot out and bury it, that sick of looking at it.
may well be £200+ but no-one wants 17% wheat even in a famine.
do Tey Farm Services still sell Trailer driers? @Andrew K
Yes i believe they do.Give Roger Fairs a ring on 01206 210003. He may hire you one, or know of one available locally.
 

farmerfred86

Member
BASIS
Location
Suffolk
If you really need to know what's going on Bill Basford is the man to call.

I suspect given the large number of days with high humidity you've actually done very little drying. If you had, you'd have used serious amounts of gas/heat. Your system is obviously working as the drying front is moving upwards...
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
I suspect that as it’s drying up through the stack, the warm damp air is getting to the top and hitting colder air above making the water condense out and make the top wetter. This sometimes creates a crust of wetter stuff on top but as you have been stirring it that should help a lot. Wheat over 18% on floor is always going to be slow to dry especially if the control settings aren’t letting it run much due to the rh being too high.

See @Flatwheels post above, also @Jo28
 
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shakerator

Member
Location
LINCS
October in particular not a drying month.

Floor Drying stores are better with generators with heat recovery. Electric + propane/ diesel heat vs diesel /lpg generator and 60% heat capture ... I would have one on grid fan with an inverter for small parcels / conditioning, with the generator powering the big fan
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
A. You need to be blowing constantly, not on and off. I was told if you stop the fans for half an hour it takes half a day to get the grain drying again. (The drying 'front' has a momentum)
B. Have you got enough airflow? Will a handkerchief almost float on top of the grain? Is it clean under the wooden floor?
C. As said above you need probably 55%RH, as it is so cold. Have you checked it with a whirling hygrometer, or other recently calibrated device?
D. IME Grain butlers are worse than useless. Creates a hard crust 12" below the surface. Its obviously not working as it is 15% at the bottom and 19% at the top.

Have you spoken to the manufacturers of the humidity modulating burner? They will usually have lots of knowledge. Is the burner big enough for the fan?
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
I find that moving the grain from one side of the store to the other ie mixing thoroughly is the best way of getting round this type of problem.

I've never had to do it with wheat but despite having over size diesel driven fans and proper gantry stirrers sometimes with grass seed moving it off the floor and putting it back is the only way. It always seems like a hassle but after days of struggling to make progress after moving it seems to dry in no time.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I’m not that bright but why turn off the fan on damp days if you are adding plenty of heat. If it isn’t actually raining or foggy and your yard had dried up a bit I’d be running that fan and burner constantly. The heat lowers the RH of the air. You can get a problem with condensation if the upper layers are cold but this is more likely if you keep switching the fan off. You need to get the drying warm front right up through the heap which required sustained operation of the fan and burner.
 
I've never had to do it with wheat but despite having over size diesel driven fans and proper gantry stirrers sometimes with grass seed moving it off the floor and putting it back is the only way. It always seems like a hassle but after days of struggling to make progress after moving it seems to dry in no time.
I had quite a bit of 23% wheat this time - full of green grains etc.
I spread it out about 4' deep blew it constantly with ambient air for a week - the top felt solid to walk on.
Moved it to the other side and pushed it up and it blew it a bit more and it was dry in a couple of days and walked fine on the top.
If I hadn't moved I'd still by worrying about it and blowing it at christmas (I don't have stirers though)
 

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