5 Ways to Ready Your Grain Bins For Harvest
Your annual harvest goal: Get grain out of the field in good condition. But what about how well that grain holds up in storage?
That’s where an on-farm storage assessment can play a valuable role. It can help ensure your grain bin system is in good working order, says Dave Ahern, AGI sales professional for GSI North America.
“Your bins have a story to tell,” he says. “We start with understanding what your bin can and can’t do and then define a plan to meet your needs.”
If you haven’t participated in a formal bin assessment before or recently, you can still schedule one for this fall. Ahern says most take about an hour to complete.
If you can’t work an official one into your schedule, consider the following five practices Ahern and other grain ex-perts recommend taking now.
1. Perform routine maintenance and inspections.
Evaluate the integrity of bins, inside and out and from top to bottom. Look for cracks, holes and any other structural issues that have occurred this year.
To reduce pest infestations, limit accessibility by sealing any gaps and cracks, removing all potential food sources, and in some cases applying insecticides, advises Kristina TeBockhorst, Iowa State University agricultural engineer-ing Extension specialist.
Also check electrical systems, control boxes and sensors to ensure all mechanical aspects of the bin system oper-ate and function properly.
“Inspect belts for correct tension, check chains and drives for tension and lubricate well,” Ahern says. “Ensure safety cages, shields and dump points are secure and in good condition. If any components show damage or exces-sive wear, replace them.”
Don’t forget to clean out harvesting and handling equipment, such as combines, trucks, wagons and augers, to re-move all dust and debris that can harbor mold and insects, TeBockhorst adds.
2. Develop an intentional fan use plan.
Running a fan too often or too little is costly for grain quality or electricity. In-stead, have a plan in place to run fans if your system isn’t set up to run on a set of parameters automatically, Ahern advises.
“In regard to conditioning, each bin falls into three buckets according to their airflow — cubic feet per minute (cfm) per bushel; drying 1 cfm to 2 cfm per bu., dry-aeration 0.5 cfm per bu., and aeration,” he says.
For successful “aeration” of grain, Iowa State experts recommend an airflow rate of at least 0.1 cfm per bushel is required. An aeration fan with 0.1 cfm per bushel will take around 150 hours to fully cool the grain, while a larger dry-ing fan with 1 cfm per bushel will take around 15 hours.
Access the University of Minnesota’s fan selection program to estimate the airflow rate per bushel based on your fan, grain bin size and grain depth.
3. Be prepared to monitor and condition stored grain.
“Moisture levels warn you before you have a problem in the bin, while temperature can tell you if you have a problem,” Ahern says.
When grain deteriorates, it heats up and can create hot spots or contribute to mold, rot and insect feeding.
“Often the problem is a pocket of fines or some wetter grain that sat in the bin longer than it should have,” Ahern says.
For each point wetter stored, the shelf life goes down. Your goal is to find any wet pockets in the storage season.
You can check grain condition by looking for hot spots with temperature cable sensing systems or with a portable temperature probe.
Be proactive and schedule inspections throughout the grain storage period, adds Joe Harner, agricultural engi-neer emeritus at Kansas State University.
Once grain temperature and outdoor air temperatures are below 45°F, monthly monitoring should be adequate, Harner says. But, if either temperature is above 45°F, inspect at least every two weeks.
4. Develop your marketing plan.
What does marketing have to do with grain bins? Plenty. Ahern says a marketing plan can help you develop a strategy for maintaining the quality of stored grain until you’re ready to market it on your terms, when commodity prices are in your favor.
5. Keep safety your priority.
Post warning signs on bins and at all entry points so everyone is aware of hazards. Also, restrict access to bins and piles. AGI recommends checking lock-out and tag-out procedures to ensure no one turns on an auger when a person is inside the bin.
“A rule of thumb is to adopt a two-person protocol,” Ahern says. “In an emergency, you can’t get cell service from inside a grain bin.”
