Grain Drying

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Yes a decent shed can be used for many things, not so if it has an on floor dryer installed. I like to keep things flexible. I don’t want a shed that can only be used for one thing. So for me an opico type batch drier and pedestals would probably work best with my multipurpose shed for not too much outlay. If it’s dry, tip it straight in to dry shed, the pedestals will cool it. If not dry, tip it in the wet shed, bucket or tip straight into dryer, unload into trailer and tip in dry shed. Push it about with telehqndler. No major amount of dedicated pain in the arse infrastructure needed, and we can sell it and still have multipurpose shed there if we need it. Crack on.
This is my system.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Why do you need a dryer? Without being rude you aren’t growing a big acreage, even historically within your farm area are you ? What with grass and beet? You have been talking about spring barley only? How can you afford to dry it? To be fair I realise you are quite a bit later in N Lincolnshire. But it’s not Scotland is it?

Knock £7.50 per ton off 300 tons per annum and also realise you have to move wet grain pretty quickly, not necessarily at a good time for selling and you still think I don’t need a dryer? Lose hagberg rating or end up with half your barley on the floor waiting for a dry spell that never comes isn’t very clever either.
I might not harvest a huge area but I do like to sell a product that’s in spec at a time I choose rather than have to get rid quickly and be had over a barrel with drying charges.
Each to their own though, but I have seen heaps round here you could ride a bike over where folks thought they’d get away without a dryer.👍
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Knock £7.50 per ton off 300 tons per annum and also realise you have to move wet grain pretty quickly, not necessarily at a good time for selling and you still think I don’t need a dryer? Lose hagberg rating or end up with half your barley on the floor waiting for a dry spell that never comes isn’t very clever either.
I might not harvest a huge area but I do like to sell a product that’s in spec at a time I choose rather than have to get rid quickly and be had over a barrel with drying charges.
Each to their own though, but I have seen heaps round here you could ride a bike over where folks thought they’d get away without a dryer.👍
Perhaps I’m wrong but don’t know anyone in this part of the world harvesting the tonnages you are on about with driers. I think climate has a lot to do with it. I have definitely lost heads on the floor due to being late to harvest. Never thought that would pay for a drier purchase but maybe again I’m wrong.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Perhaps I’m wrong but don’t know anyone in this part of the world harvesting the tonnages you are on about with driers. I think climate has a lot to do with it. I have definitely lost heads on the floor due to being late to harvest. Never thought that would pay for a drier purchase but maybe again I’m wrong.
There is truth in what you say, I acknowledge that.
I’d agree that loading it onto boats and taking the hit for up to 2% over at or a month or two after harvest is probably no more costly than drying it myself provided the price for spot movement at harvest isn’t ridiculously low and I have done that many times to save the hassle of pushing it through the system.
Some years we haven’t needed to dry anything, other years we would have been stuck without it. In 2017 a lot in this area really struggled to get late cut spring barley dry quickly enough. Beans always seem to need drying here.
I certainly can’t justify spending much on an updated set up, but a s/h opico and some pedestals won’t break the bank and just gives us that bit more flexibility. Cleaning within the system can also make the difference for us with having a claim for bushel weight. Surprising how taking just a small amount of light grains out of 10 ton will get you back up within spec.
It’s a mindset I suppose. And though I moan, I find it quite satisfying handling grain. I like our old Almet dryer. It’s quite efficient as it pulls a partial vacuum as well as heating the grain. It’s just quite slow and all the augers and paraphernalia around it can be troublesome. I’d be sad to see it broken up.
 

shakerator

Member
Location
LINCS
Yes a decent shed can be used for many things, not so if it has an on floor dryer installed. I like to keep things flexible. I don’t want a shed that can only be used for one thing. So for me an opico type batch drier and pedestals would probably work best with my multipurpose shed for not too much outlay. If it’s dry, tip it straight in to dry shed, the pedestals will cool it. If not dry, tip it in the wet shed, bucket or tip straight into dryer, unload into trailer and tip in dry shed. Push it about with telehqndler. No major amount of dedicated pain in the arse infrastructure needed, and we can sell it and still have multipurpose shed there if we need it. Crack on.
Fan invertor on tickover...
underfloor heating floor dryer !
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Fan invertor on tickover...
underfloor heating floor dryer !
I think it's all about initial cost. If you can get a 2nd hand drier for £5000 I would personally go for a better one and double the budget. 6 pedastals at £150 each? And, if you're stingey, one fan although I would get 2.
I would also go for oil drying over Gas.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Well this year we press on with the Almet and the simplex cooling bins and 150t dried grain old storage.... and hope for a dry harvest. Hopefully we can load as much as possible straight into wagons.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I think it's all about initial cost. If you can get a 2nd hand drier for £5000 I would personally go for a better one and double the budget. 6 pedastals at £150 each? And, if you're stingey, one fan although I would get 2.
I would also go for oil drying over Gas.

That sounds like the best plan B if our existing setup doesnt pass inspection at some point. I’m a bit wary of oil over gas as I can see regs on direct fired oil tightening in favour of gas, much as oil is a lot easier to deal with.
 

quattro

Member
Location
scotland
That sounds like the best plan B if our existing setup doesnt pass inspection at some point. I’m a bit wary of oil over gas as I can see regs on direct fired oil tightening in favour of gas, much as oil is a lot easier to deal with.
How many different types of crop are you wanting to store at any one time
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
How many different types of crop are you wanting to store at any one time
About three. Though whether oilseed rape will ever come back is debatable, leaving just wheat and barley. Sometimes we grow beans but we parmiter them straight into the radial bins as they jam the augers in and out of the Almet and don’t respond to a short burst of high heat anyway.
I reckon I will carry on with what we’ve got. It’s done sixty years this year, doesn’t owe us a lot and it’s the devil I know.
 

quattro

Member
Location
scotland
About three. Though whether oilseed rape will ever come back is debatable, leaving just wheat and barley. Sometimes we grow beans but we parmiter them straight into the radial bins as they jam the augers in and out of the Almet and don’t respond to a short burst of high heat anyway.
I reckon I will carry on with what we’ve got. It’s done sixty years this year, doesn’t owe us a lot and it’s the devil I know.
Can you just replace the dryer with a mobile
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
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.
150acres... just combine in the dry :ROFLMAO:
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Can you just replace the dryer with a mobile
The elevator and auger that takes it away from Almet struggles with 3 tph so wouldnt manage unloading a batch dryer.
If I bought a batch dryer I’d utilise my existing new shed with pedestals. Problem is that new shed is jammed full of machinery so don’t know where I would put that machinery. Won’t fit in the old grain system as it’s all bins and stuff. Then there is the built in home mill and mix equipment also integrated into the old system that we still use. Reckon I’m trapped in 1960. Makes me sweat just thinking of the work and expense needed to change it.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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