Grain Drying

[Overby]

Wondering what's general thoughts on DIY drying.
'If' someone were operating a 25 year old 12t/h continuous flow dryer for 900 acres, everything going through it. The intake is still from the 60s and microscopic and the handling and wet stora, is becoming unsustainable. The rape goes stright after drying but there can obviously be some 'delay' so it's piled wet in the cattle shed, dried then bucketed back by forklift to the original shed.
The intake and drier can't keep up with the volume of wheat coming in and ofte all available sheds (over 1000 sq m)are full to the doors with rape or barley waiting to go in one, and the rest full of wet wheat. There's not enough room in the actual dryer shed for all the dry stuff to fit in so again, the dry stuff is bucketed out back to the original shed, often into the same shed as wet stuff...needing to be 'kept seperate'...which is impossible.
There are seperate entities within the business pushing in differnet directions. one being get as much dried off the place as possible, leaving as soon as it's cut to never be seen again (and not handled 3 or 4 times) and then just dry the wheat to shed capacity. Other factions enjoy the palaver currently ongoing.
Tie in the fact that the 'wet' sheds are now earmarked for other use too.
Is a dryer of that age likely to be efficient (not modified at all, still as the day it went in)?
The extra handling and taking up of shed space must be outdated compared to shifting to the local commercial plant/storage?
The days of finding driving about shifting buckets of corn until yon time because it's 'fun' are surely long gone.
Any input or views much appreciated.

 

[PSQ]

Sounds like you're the drier man, and they take the fact that you do the job without complaint as permission to keep exploiting your good will, year after year, without having to spend a penny on improving the situation. Quids in for them, royal PITA for you.

Am I far off?

 

[DrWazzock]

Sounds just like our place except we have a 3 ton per hour Almet continuous flow further limited by 2 radial blown bins which provide enough cooling capacity to do a grand total of 20 tons per day. The Almet runs from 8 am till 2 pm then the cooling bins need to run on for a couple of hours to cool and condition the grain before it’s moved into long term storage. It works very well but it’s incredibly slow, has a control panel bigger than Cape Canaveral and if just one thing backs up it all comes to a squealing belt burning smoking halt. I have wracked my brains to come up with a better system but 150 acres of cereals won’t pay for it.

 

[Overby]

not far....chuck in some theoretical standard farming family obstinance too.

Not quite as simple as 'drier man', hence the seeking of opinion to add clarity to a situation.

 

[DrWazzock]

We have a shed with wet and dry dumping areas. Then bucket it round to drier reception pit, up two augers into continuous flow drier, out of drier up an elevator that can only cope with 75% of drier max flow, then up an auger into cooling bins, out of cooling bins up another elevator then another auger then a kongskilde cleaner then another auger into long term storage either under the old granary which is shovel loading bay for wagons holding 75 ton or into 4 x 16 tonne wooden bins for home feed.

 

[DrWazzock]

the only way forward I could see was either buying central storage or maybe an opico and pedestals, neither of which are cheap or problem free.

 

[PSQ]

not far....chuck in some theoretical standard farming family obstinance too.

Whoever is getting in the way of improving the situation, you need to somehow get them to swap jobs with you for a few days. That way they'll get fed up to the back teeth too and suggest that it's time to modify the plant, as if it was their idea all along

 

[Overby]

The finances intrigue me, once you add in fuel, labour and the cost of not using the sheds for something else, sending everything away asap to a commercial facility must be cheaper these days? Nothing else 25 years old is efficient compared to the modern day either, surely dryers are the same? Particularly once you factor in that once the crown's gone that's it, no loading etc.

 

[marshbarn]

900 acres and no under floor drying ?

 

[Overby]

Exactly

 

[DanniAgro]

Can't you sabotage it one day so that it grinds to a halt at peak combining time? Preumably you must manage to keep it going, such as it is, all the time it's needed, otherwise the combine man or boss would surely be furious with stoppages and vow to improve throughput?
With 900 acres to handle, your farm manager must be a peculiar cove to put up with this glacial rate of drying.

 

[PSQ]

The finances intrigue me, once you add in fuel, labour and the cost of not using the sheds for something else, sending everything away asap to a commercial facility must be cheaper these days? Nothing else 25 years old is efficient compared to the modern day either, surely dryers are the same? Particularly once you factor in that once the crown's gone that's it, no loading etc.

Commercial storage is convenient but dead money on every tonne.
Is your situation one that would be fixed by rationalising or adding shed space, or putting in conveyors to move dry grain to it's long term storage? Refurbishing 2nd hand conveyors can be a cheaper way of updating a system.
12t/hr isn't too bad, as long as it's not coming in at 25% and running through at 4t/hr. The principles of drying haven't changed, it's just that more modern driers have more flashing lights, digital doohickeys and other stuff that you cant fix on a Sunday.

 

[Overby]

Commercial storage is convenient but dead money on every tonne.
Is your situation one that would be fixed by rationalising or adding shed space, or putting in conveyors to move dry grain to it's long term storage? Refurbishing 2nd hand conveyors can be a cheaper way of updating a system.
12t/hr isn't too bad, as long as it's not coming in at 25% and running through at 4t/hr. The principles of drying haven't changed, it's just that more modern driers have more flashing lights, digital doohickeys and other stuff that you cant fix on a Sunday.

The facilities are also on one farm which isn't actually meant to be shared but due to complicated family reasons is (to some extent). The drier need to be used but the system is ludicrous, there are alternative uses lined up for the sheds but the other faction (who does not live or really have any control at that farm, but is relying on family poilitcs to not have a fall out) refuses to change.

It doesn't come in at 25% but obviously in wetter years it may be 20-22, it doesn't take long to have a 500m sq m shed filled to the door with wet wheat waiting to be dried.

The system is antiquated and cannot be efficient. The other political stuff is all to familiar in farming families.

 

[PSQ]

Ok, in that case the family needs to sit down and decide what they want to do.

Carrying on as in previous years?
Revamp the existing yard?
Clean sheet / 'greenfield development' grain store?
Commercial storage? - in your case it sounds like it would be an option, possibly the only option.

Just to clarify, is the family in question your family?

 

[DrWazzock]

The finances intrigue me, once you add in fuel, labour and the cost of not using the sheds for something else, sending everything away asap to a commercial facility must be cheaper these days? Nothing else 25 years old is efficient compared to the modern day either, surely dryers are the same? Particularly once you factor in that once the crown's gone that's it, no loading etc.

I think you are right. If we stop using our old system it will be central storage for us. Storage standards will only get tighter so we will leave it to the experts. Load it once and it’s gone.
From what I understand, and somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but when you buy a share in central storage you can actually sell it again for example when you retire so it’s not actually dead money as such and probably better than a deteriorating grain store in your own yard with all the associated running and maintenance costs. No way we could justify the outlay for a state of the art system here on our own premises.

 

[Overby]

Ok, in that case the family needs to sit down and decide what they want to do.

Carrying on as in previous years?
Revamp the existing yard?
Clean sheet / 'greenfield development' grain store?
Commercial storage? - in your case it sounds like it would be an option, possibly the only option.

Just to clarify, is the family in question your family?

Oh yes, mine. Another option may be a streamlining of efficiency (which again, due to never wanting to change anything is always resisted). Ie the 500 sq m drier shed used more effectively as a wet. then dry store and much more shipped out immediately. There is no desire from me, who lives here to do what we do currently, and I have plans in place to utilise said sheds for other use. Other generations and family poitics (for which I hold no truck) are now the stumbling block. Seeking a bit of outside perspective was my main aim here....sometimetimes it's hard to clarify the wood for the trees.
All replies much appreciated.

 

[DanniAgro]

Oh yes, mine. Another option may be a streamlining of efficiency (which again, due to never wanting to change anything is always resisted). Ie the 500 sq m drier shed used more effectively as a wet. then dry store and much more shipped out immediately. There is no desire from me, who lives here to do what we do currently, and I have plans in place to utilise said sheds for other use. Other generations and family poitics (for which I hold no truck) are now the stumbling block. Seeking a bit of outside perspective was my main aim here....sometimetimes it's hard to clarify the wood for the trees.
All replies much appreciated.

As someone who farms as part of a family, I can feel your pain, especially the wish to update and streamline your operation whilst other are convinced it's foolish to spend so much money ( I'm thinking of my father here).

 

[rob h]

Is the farm owned or rented.how old are you and have you anyone to take over .it is no use spending if you are near retirement and no one to talk over.on the other hand if you are going to be farming for quite a while it may be worth spending on re working the dryer with extra shed space.then you are in controll of marketing. Central storage isn't free in the long term you May be better off with youre own storage

 

[Zippy768]

Ok, in that case the family needs to sit down and decide what they want to do.

Reply of the day

 

[Overby]

Is the farm owned or rented.how old are you and have you anyone to take over .it is no use spending if you are near retirement and no one to talk over.on the other hand if you are going to be farming for quite a while it may be worth spending on re working the dryer with extra shed space.then you are in controll of marketing. Central storage isn't free in the long term you May be better off with youre own storage

It's a lot more complicated unfortunately. Family member who refuses to accept we've split up a business and insists on trying to treat our farm as his place of work (laying claim to sheds etc) despite actually living on his own farm nearby and having sold off sheds he owned (don't question the lunacy...it just makes it worse) . I don't want to continue the current line at all but am trying to peacefully broker a solution, the other side arent't willing to accept change and refuse to compensate properly for what's currently happening. Tenanted farm so we could just say 'jog on', but trying to keep the peace. Pointing out the £ futility is one element of trying to carrot and stick a solution. Hence the research.