Haulage logistics for efficient grain collection

I was listening to a talk by the farms director of an estate local to us. They have recently moved to predominantly one large central store from what were a much larger number of stores spread out around the estate. He said that one of his recent efforts has been to persuade merchants and haulage firms to collect contracts in shorter and more concentrated periods of time. They have one full time person who manages their one big store, and AFAIK he loads out probably 20,000+ tonnes of grain a year with one loading shovel.

It seems at the moment we load grain out in pretty inefficient way. We have stores located on different farms which are often half an hour away from each other by tele-handler. Haulage firms ringing up with 24 hours notice wanting pick up single loads of grain is seriously undesirable, especially when the lorry ends up getting stuck in traffic. Having to suddenly stop one job to go and load a lorry makes the other job also very inefficient.

Sometimes when we sell grain onto a boat we seem to be able to load 10+ lorries in a day and empty an entire store in one go. This is obviously a far better way of doing it. So my question is, what progress can be made (or has anyone made) in persuading haulage firms / merchants taking or selling milling wheat to UK mills and maltsters to stop sending lorries in piecemeal, and instead to send a succession of lorries so that they can be loaded one after each other in one or two goes to clear the contact? In order to get the whole contract loaded out in a very small number of goes, does this mean we need to grow different grades of wheat and only sell into certain markets, or can progress be made on this front across the board?

If we could move towards a much more condensed timescale for loading individual contracts, I think we could probably reduce the number of tele-handlers we need, and also reduce the number of man hours that we spend loading out grain.
 
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Our strategy is the complete opposite to this, e3120.

Offer everyone loading at very short notice and all unsociable hours to get an average £1/tonne extra

This is another thing. I wonder if we are too kind to some of the haulage firms. We'll load them at 6am if they ask, but don't obviously get any benefit. Against that a manager down the road from us was getting (but I don't think it's always this high) £4/t premium for loading late at night (between 8pm and midnight IIRC).
 

Neddy flanders

Member
BASE UK Member
Is the fundamental problem that some mills just don't want 10 loads in a day?
what I was thinking. also theres 15 farmers, not one who want to load 10 loads a day.

what happens when they empty large central stores like camgrain etc or merchants own stores? do they get treated differently by the forwarders?
 

Teejay

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
Last week, lorry due at 8:30 still not on farm at 10, ring haulier, told just leaving yard 20 miles away, arrives on farm at 11:20, great only problem trailer is soaking wet.
Week before 18 tonnes on lorry and driver runs over to me shouting stop, turns out boat is full and they don't want it or the previous load that I had just loaded.
Normally we only see grain lorries at 7:30am and 4:30 pm.
I think there is room for improvement.
 

Jetemp

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
Reason a lot will have only see wagons out of hours - most other industries that the bulk haulage operations are involved (quarries and such like) in have strict loading and unloading times. They will not load or tip if you turn up after there stated times, however the agricultural industry are generally a fair bit more flexible!

@Feldspar im not sure 20000 tones of storage justifies a full time man if I'm honest! We store circa 15000 tones and reckon that if you take the drying operation out it takes less that's 10% of our time, we have 3 full time staff.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
a full time guy on 20k tonnes is rather OTT I reckon


we load 7.30-5 Monday - Friday - I would load outside those hours if a premium was offered though

its always best when they empty a store quickly - have loaded out best part of 1000t in a day before
 

Fuzzy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
This is another thing. I wonder if we are too kind to some of the haulage firms. We'll load them at 6am if they ask, but don't obviously get any benefit. Against that a manager down the road from us was getting (but I don't think it's always this high) £4/t premium for loading late at night (between 8pm and midnight IIRC).
The Haulage company are simply doing what they are asked. It is your Grain Trader who is in control of your contracts, collections and deliveries. When i want a yard full of lorries to fulfill a contract that is what i ask for, if i just want a lorry a day (if we are combining or need to dry it first) then that is what i ask them to do. I also rarely sell anything for collection when i am on holiday !!

Do you have more than one crop type at each location/store ?
 

Condi

Member
From the other side of the fence, what about farmers who sell 3 loads but need 3 days between each to dry the next 29t? Or the growers who take 2-3 hours to load? Or what happens when the first load tips, and is wet, but you have 4 more on wheels en route to the mill?

Then you have mills who issue 10 bookings for the morning, and non for the afternoon. If it takes 30 mins to load, 1.5 hours to the mill, and 1 hour to tip, how is the lorry supposed to get back to the farm for the second load in time?


Realistically the only way to do it is when loading boats, or into an ethanol plant which is taking thousands of tonnes per day.

The electronic passport would have helped as the grower would have got notified when the booking was assigned. However, that seems to have fallen flat for now.
 

Jetemp

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
In reality the stumbling block in the movement of grain is the mill intake. Merchants will not give mills any grief about the time wagons are sat at intakes. They are worried if they give them grief that they won't come back to buy
IMG_1494787792.069396.jpg


Wagon was sat on this intake for 3 hours last week. We got paid no more for waiting. If a farmer made a wagon wait 3 the merchant would be jumping up and down!

This mill has told merchants that they have updated the intake. The reality being that they have given the auger a fresh lick of paint!

James
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
In reality the stumbling block in the movement of grain is the mill intake. Merchants will not give mills any grief about the time wagons are sat at intakes. They are worried if they give them grief that they won't come back to buy View attachment 517906

Wagon was sat on this intake for 3 hours last week. We got paid no more for waiting. If a farmer made a wagon wait 3 the merchant would be jumping up and down!

This mill has told merchants that they have updated the intake. The reality being that they have given the auger a fresh lick of paint!

James
Nail On Head - and 'twas ever thus (y)
 

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