Refurbish Grain Store

[Poncherello1976]

Our grain store is coming up or over 50 years old. Elevators and pipes etc are starting to wear out and I am fed up of the continual need to patch up holes in the conveyors and elevators. I am also looking at changing the way we store the crops, currently in internal bins square and round bins.
Any recommendations for companies to help me sort this out and give our grain storage a make over please?
Obviously a long term project, so will soldier on for this harvest!

 

[teslacoils]

I looked at similar this year. To remove s range of square bins to make a flat floor; refurb existing drive over floor; replace fan; add modern controller and humidity thingy.

Wasn't in any way economic. Bought 250t of central storage space and will do the same again next year, and will gut the old drier shed for general storage.

Main issue is simply shed height.

 

[DrWazzock]

My dream set up would be a brand new purpose built grain store, with on floor drier, split lengthways down the middle with a canopy outside the far end for a mobile drier and overhead conveyor to load in really wet stuff.
But it doesn’t really add unless you have a stack of money to use up and like that sort of thing.
So on we struggle with the Almet 3 tph , cooking pedestals and old sheds.
Or go for central storage but from what I’ve learned it’s only worth the cost for quality crops that command a premium. If it’s feed wheat it’s better to sell forward for harvest collection when the price is right and maybe take the hit on slight over moisture which is what we have done this year and so far I’m not sorry, yet.

 

[Poncherello1976]

Yes we carry on with our 3T an hour drier, but have a larger combine so hopefully do not need the drier too much and can go when the sun shines,(though I think I have forgotten what that looks like at the moment!)
I am not too sure what I want, and so want to chat through the options with someone, using the building infrastructure we have at the moment. I am not adverse to putting a new barn up with a flat floor and use pedestals, but it will not be at our main farm as that is rented.
It also seems like a waste of a good telehandler, which will load a lorry in 20mins, using conveyors which take 45 mins to load a lorry.

 

[teslacoils]

My old setup was costing £6 to get it through the converyors and a little conditioning. Plus the cost of shovelling out bins -almost two months sat down; hours of physio etc. That's before drying.

The shed was built for 1960s kit. Contractors cut 200ac between 9-5 last summer. I wanted something that covers me for 40 years. I just thought I was setting myself up for another FFF (family farming fukabout) trying to botch something that was a botch of a botch. Ffs one side of my grain store was a pole barn and the bloody poles are 15ft apart though the vented floor!

Upgrading it would have been a false economy when I actually did the "true" figures rather than the "farming" figures.

 

[Steevo]

Products from McArthur BDC

We are a dedicated agricultural grain drying & storage specialist. As the sole UK importer for Mecmar mobile grain driers and cleaning & handling equipment.

www.mcarthuragriculture.co.uk

 

[Steevo]

That’s the expensive end of the scale….

or @grainboy will cover the cheaper end!

 

[chaffcutter]

As the old joke goes, you don't want to start from here! You don't say what quantity of grain you are handling.
If bins etc are inside I guess they are in old (brick?) buildings so even when @grainboy has gutted them out they are no good to convert?
I have had grain in all sorts of storage over the years but faced with a situation like yours now I think that Dr Wazzock's advice to sell at harvest using the gutted sheds as storage until loaded out may well be the most economic approach, perhaps with a mobile drier in case of very wet crops.
Building new grain stores is not cheap!

 

[Lincsman]

Building new grain stores is not cheap!

Often cheaper than the combine filling it though, and will still be there when the combine is weighed in.

 

[Poncherello1976]

Thanks.
We already sell some at Harvest, Peas and usually a bit of Barley. At the moment we can store 1000T give or take, and obviously with bins this works out well as the horizontal space it takes up is not massive. I realise that a flat floor store to keep sperate crops in would take up a good size area. Wheat, sometime 2 varieties, Barley, could be feed/could be malting, Oats and Peas if required would need to be stored.
A smaller store could be built to just store the Wheat longer term and get rid of the rest at harvest, but I would quite like to utilise the barn we have already, but i really do not know where to start!

 

[teslacoils]

I'd start with

1) can you tip up a decent sized trailer in the shed you're thinking of?

2) will you still be able to tip a decent sized trailer in the shed at the end of however many years you're expecting to use it for?

 

[Poncherello1976]

The current grain store with the bins in is a good size. Must be 20ft to the eves, and is 5000 sqft in size and so it has potential. So tipping trailers is fine, and even potentially loading a lorry under cover may be an option. Its just working out how to use it best, and how to incorporate the drier in to a new system.
It may be that the bins are kept and just have the elevators and conveyors updated. The bins are fine, just fed up with climbing ladders! Its the workings that are wearing out!

 

[teslacoils]

Flat concrete floor under all of it? Roller shutter door? Decent access to a road? 3ph?

 

[Poncherello1976]

Yes to a flat floor. Might need some tidying up where the bins are, and if the pits were not longer needed have them filled in, but generally flat floor in goodish condition. Access in to the barn needs to be sorted but doors can be added. Road access ok we have trucks in at the moment so no issues there, though in the middle of a village. Not 3ph yet, but will be. We are wired in for it, just need a meter put in,(Long story, should of happened last year but did not, and now have to wait for my electric contact to get near its end).
So a lot of the fixed infrastructure is in place. Its really refurbing to suit modern farming, Telehandler, larger trailers and Combine, less labour, artics taking crops away instead of us whizzing it up to the local mill. I do not need a massive drier either happy to plod on with what we have there though if we are doing it could go slightly larger. In my head I think that 60-70 grand would be a reasonable figure, as I also hope it would reduce labour as well, though I have no idea how far that will go! Start involving concrete not very!

 

[Flatlander]

Ever thought about building hopper bottom bins outside and linking them to the dryer via a conveyor. I’ve just started preparing to pour a 90 by 30 pad for three more bins. Will hold approximately 1100 tons between them. They are expensive to buy per ton but i like how easy they are to separate different grades of grain and with ventilation in them is east to cool grain for safe storage. I use an auger to fill and unload them. Virtually nothing to do to clean out except swing a rubber hammer to dislodge the last few seeds.

 

[teslacoils]

Sounds ideal to let out for light industrial units....

 

[Poncherello1976]

Sounds ideal to let out for light industrial units....

Possibly. Needs a discussion with the landlord though!

 

[Foxcover]

£60-70k, hmm.
Rip out all the bins and elevators and concrete the floor flat, buy a 12t automatic mobile dryer and 24t loading hopper and have the dryer unload into the shed through a hole in the wall, few pedestals for cooling/conditioning. Any change to be spent on moveable concrete dividers.
Limit what you spend on fixed infrastructure at the rented farm, have it all removable/mobile, once that’s sorted then start saving towards putting up the biggest flat floored shed you can afford at home farm in a few years, safe in knowledge you can move dryer and telehandler there.

 

[grainboy]

Happy to quote for work or equipment,

 

[teslacoils]

Possibly. Needs a discussion with the landlord though!

Get landlord to put up new grainstore.