- Location
- South Lincs
Those must have been old bins with small capacity augers. Our 10 inch (US made, Hutchinson Mayrath) can load load 29tons in under 25 minutes quite comfortably. Lorry backs under spout, sheet off, 2 buttons pressed, buttons pressed again to turn off and he's away again in under half an hour. Some lorry drivers who remember the 4 and 6 inch augers are quite amazed how much quicker it is. We have a neighbour with a similar set up who reckons he can load in less than 20 minutes but we don't like to push it although the official maximum capacity of them is 122tons/hour. I'm sure that there are people with big sheds, loaders and buckets that can do it a bit quicker but it's far from slow. We also never spill any whilst loading (unless the lorry driver isn't paying attention and it goes over the side!)One answer might be that at an average US yield of around 1.5 tons to the acre bins are less arse ache than at UK yields. Look at some of the US youtube videos of emptying grain bins, most seem to have their own trucks they use to take grain off the farm, and are happy to take an hour or more to load 20 tons of grain. Imagine asking a UK lorry driver to hang around for 90 minutes while you auger 28 tonnes into his trailer.