damp canola? Advice??

[furrowtickler]

We took off some canola yesterday at 17%mt, it's in a hopper bin with air and heat. Cleaned out anouther hopper today so we can move it back and forth if need be. 6pm tonight we turn off the heat to let cool air back through overnight. by 6:30 we had moisture coming out the bottom. We had plan to move it in the morning anyway but my question is this - should we add any heat at all or just keep moving it and keep the air on/off? We can blend some off with dry(7%) but do not have enough dry. Not a drier to be had anywhere and the elevators need below 14%.

[Hopperbin]

Not sure but my experience with wet canola heating is air it without moving if you can. The moving acts to add oxygen to the fire. pushing air through cools it from bottom up. Otherwise take some out of bin and put into another air bin and level off bins. Keep an eye on it. I have a 2900 bin at 22 percent still cold but cautious not to brag to much, it is a flat floor air bin so that is also different, maybe you need to take out a little from that bottom and put on top.

[SASKFARMER3]

So you lucky guys didnt get the 1/2 inch of rain.

[Choice2U]

Dumped rain guage today. 1" over the past 2 days but fortunately in our area most guys have only flax left.

[furrowtickler]

Thanks hopper, it is in the plan to "half" the bins if need be. Never been here before.
ADM is now taking tough canola at reasonable drying costs - funny what happens when you are short of product.
Cargil is screwing guys out of their IMC contracted prices if they try to dry their IMC on their own. It must go to Cargil to be dried, but only under 14% and if you do deliver you loose your price "premium" Go figure.

[poorboy]

Drying in hopper bin,

Make sure that you only have about 5/8 as much canola in the bin as wheat. The airflow is not enough if the bin is full of canola and you don't get proper moisture removal. It should work excellent if you can add enough heat. I have an air-o-matic on nat gas that is 300,000 btu and have it set on 100 degrees f and a 5 hp fan drying 2000 bushels at a time in a 16' dia. bin. It takes about 4.5 days to dry it down and about 1 day to cool it. You must layer it into truck as you move it because the top canola is still tough and the bottom canola is 4%.

Other option is to run the heat for another 2 or 3 days and dry all the canola in the bin to 4% and then mix it with the tougher bin beside it as you move it. If you can leave it on the truck for a while or put it back in an air bin and run the fan a little it should help the tough and dry canola to equalize in moisture better.



Cargill IMC Canola,

You can dry the IMC canola at home. They have no way of knowing if you dryed it or not. I have dryed lots of IMC canola over the years.

[furrowtickler]

Thanks p/b, we shuffeled around a ship load of canola and wheat today to make room and are trying what you suggested. Filled two 5000 bus bins with rockets and heat half full and added 600 bus of 7% on top of each bin. Then mixed off 3 to 1 - 7% and 17% into a 4500 with no air with the average of 8.8%. Will keep the air heat on for a few days on the tougher stuff and roll it again.
Canola is slowly going backwards in the feild here now. 15% yesterday 17 today - no rain/snow, just cool and very damp again with 0 wind.
Almost a worse situation than not combining at all here - big bushels comming off at 17 and no home for it at all. Elevators are stuffed, will not take it above 14%, and locals with driers are swamped beyound capacity for weeks. This is an area that needs drying 1 out of 5 years at best but absoloutly no capacity for the bus that are comming off. There is canola going in bins with no air at above 17%. Wheat going on the ground at above 20%.

[mbratrud]

Mix half and half with dry and get it the hell off your farm!

[mbratrud]

Some locations will take 12.5% there are shipping to the coast for drying (or blending) at Terminal.