- Location
- Lincolnshire
Doesn't look too rosy for zero tillers either. Plough'em down.
Ergot in Spring wheat
- Thread starter phr49
- Start date
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I can imagine a bit of consternation over that scenario. I imagine there will good grain lost as well. It starts with good practice in the field to minimise the work of the colour sorter and avoid the scenario of it not getting it all out.
Woldgrain Storage
Member
- Location
- Hemswell, North Lincs
With each piece of ergot being almost unique in size and shape, no colour sorter can guarantee 100% removal.
It's not unusual for us to clean Mulika, Lennox, Chilham, Cochise in two passes. Every time a piece of ergot is removed some good grains go with it.
And no, mills & maltings don't care if a load has been colour sorted or not. If they find ergot it gets chucked out.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I’d say my feed wheat is presently in spec on ergot.
Spring wheat, not a chance.
But chucking the spring wheat on the feed wheat heap could easily put the heap over the feed wheat ergot limit, so that’s not a very good idea, as my merchant rightly said.
So I’ll just have to bite the bullet and colour sort the spring wheat and hope the premium covers the cost.
What a pallaver. Is it really worth it?
Spring wheat, not a chance.
But chucking the spring wheat on the feed wheat heap could easily put the heap over the feed wheat ergot limit, so that’s not a very good idea, as my merchant rightly said.
So I’ll just have to bite the bullet and colour sort the spring wheat and hope the premium covers the cost.
What a pallaver. Is it really worth it?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I'd never, ever choose to send milling wheat to a mill from my own farm. They hold too many cards, be it ergot, protein, bushel, etc.
There's a story about every flour mill, be it known for low protein knocks, crappy intakes, not liking a bit of chaff. At least once it's in a store then you know it's out of your hands.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Probably a private matter but how does it work on tolerance levels with amalgamated loads from different members into on bulk silo? Presumably if I turned up with dirty load it’s cleaned on the way in and I’m charged rather than “diluted” essentially to detriment of other members selling out of that bulk store? And if I sell a load out of the common bulk store of day group 1 milling wheat and it gets rejected, despite best efforts, who bears the cost? PM me if you’d rather.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Even feed mills are getting fussy. I think central storage with cleaning etc is looking like it’s an inevitable progression depending on how you define progress.
we have had color sorters for many years now.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
It strikes me though that the cost and responsibility for colour sorting has been kicked back to us the supplier as usual. I remember loading milling wheat years ago picking out ergot and lorry driver chucked it back in. He said they clean it out at the mill and sell it to the pharmaceutical industry. It’s more valuable than the wheat! As a farmer I do my best to keep ergot levels down and deliver a raw material that’s as good as I can REASONABLY get it. Further transfer of processing back to the farm or at the farms cost is going to make some crops such as spring wheat financially unviable and in short supply. Sound familiar?
Meanwhile I’ve got to deal with the present reality.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Potentially. But I think suppliers are stronger when all grain is in one large bulk then in 100 on farm stores. Subject to certain safeguards!
.......and there's bushel weights for FFS !!
Take some loads to local mill soft wheat £9 t premium over feed all close to limit 72 kg/hl one load below at 71.7 kg/hl went through ok no claim on it although normally £1 per kg/hl under the limit .
Take the same wheat into Central store Bushel wt 72.8 kg/hl down graded to feed on Bushel weight
.........Happy days
Take some loads to local mill soft wheat £9 t premium over feed all close to limit 72 kg/hl one load below at 71.7 kg/hl went through ok no claim on it although normally £1 per kg/hl under the limit .
Take the same wheat into Central store Bushel wt 72.8 kg/hl down graded to feed on Bushel weight
.........Happy days
Woldgrain Storage
Member
- Location
- Hemswell, North Lincs
Our intake tipping pace is 300-600mt per hour, but our colour sorter top speed is about 30mt /hr, so we are unable to colour sort on intake. The majority of our colour sorting is done overnight, computer controlled.
Analysis of every load is recorded on intake, along with a record of ergot status (present/absent). The record for each load includes which intake pit, intake silo, drier and storage silo and this allows us to monitor the average spec for each silo and monitor the prevalence of ergot in each silo. As soon as harvest intake is complete, silos with ergot are colour sorted, starting with the worst affected.
.......and there's bushel weights for FFS !!
Take some loads to local mill soft wheat £9 t premium over feed all close to limit 72 kg/hl one load below at 71.7 kg/hl went through ok no claim on it although normally £1 per kg/hl under the limit .
Take the same wheat into Central store Bushel wt 72.8 kg/hl down graded to feed on Bushel weight
For now we are in a funny grey area time of year, where some mills have accepted that there are quality issues and so they have moved the goalposts already, taking claims down to 72 on softs and Gp4 hards. Others are still holding their usual 74.
For this year we have a new grade that sits inbetween feed and low grade milling, so a sort of Gp4 hard grade for Gp1 & 2 loads.
Woldgrain Storage
Member
- Location
- Hemswell, North Lincs
All intake into our store is graded and priced based on the intake analysis, with bushelweights adjusted to a dry value. These analysis results are sent by text to the member instantly when the vehicle tips.
We then store each load in a way that maximises added value (through blending) for when the merchants outload from store.
Because every silo is a comingled stock, owned by a number of members/merchants, any rejections when we outload are paid for by the store.
Rejections on our intake are very rare, including things like bugs, treated seed, fuel odour. We have done 2,053 intake loads so far this harvest and not rejected a single one (touch wood).
Yet in 30 years of selling milling wheat I don't recall many rejections. We don't find it any bother to be honest. Its all about testing on intake so you have a sample from every single load coming off the combine. Mix it up and send the lot of for free sampling with a trader. Then once its in store dried and conditioned do it again, maybe this time with two traders. That will give you the average.
- Location
- Westish Suffolk
I was always assured ( sorry! ) that an intake point has no idea of the contract price. The cynic in me has always wondered if the risk of finding a quality problem increases if you have sold on the top of the market.
I don't get many claims/rejections you see...
I don't get many claims/rejections you see...
- Location
- Lincolnshire
But it knows the distance it's travelled and the cost of the haulage back.
Can you say what good practice can prevent or reduce it, as I already use certified seed and don't know of any other ways to avoid it?
Copper? Ploughing? Perhaps maybe
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Plus good grass weed control, sterile strip round the crop maybe, decent rotation with break crops. I forget the reasons for doing these things till something like ergot or Take All comes back and bites me. Patchy emergence with the crop at all sorts of different growth stages seems to worsen it, so a good seedbed must help. Don't know whether not drilling the tramlines would help, so there are less "greens" to get infected progressively.
Yes. Have had BG ergot in my barley before