Bagger lessons learned

[mbdog]

Bagged grain first time last year. Moved it recently.
Good points were convenient, quick surge storage. Quick setup in the field after the first one under the belt. Like the system.
Bad points are holes created by the birds, deer and bears. Lesson learned...don't be lazy...monitor and plug/tape the holes. My losses were minimal but there. Where there wasn't a hole, no losses.
Will continue using this tool. Net positive.
Anyone else out there have any tips/suggestions they've tried to deter animals/birds?

[SASKFARMER3]

We take all our grain home! Tape bags and put up traps. Make sure drainage is considered when doing. Have bins this is excess storage. Longest time in bag was two crops for durum!

[vvalk]

My view is bagging can be summed up in one sentence. Bagging is better then putting the grain in a pile on the ground.

[wilagro]

vvalk: wouldn't even think of using such a cumbersome system...plastic waste for more clutter.

[mbdog]

wilagro...just curious...whats so cumbersome about the system?

[Hopperbin]

For my 2 cents
I am on sidelines.
Ok buy bagger and extractor for 70 grand could have bought 20 thousand plus bushels of smaller hopperbins. But no baggers for sale what is up with that. Are they scrap iron and people just pay another thirty grand to get one that works. Then 12 cents per bushel every year. Plus some un recycleable shit piles. Buy bins 3 dollars per bushel good for 100 years. Electrical hooked up unloads monitors fans airation complete.
The bagger market is saturated so its un saleable in the future.

[Oliver88]

I more less see things regarding bangers the same as Hopperbin.

The one year we used grain bags for 3 months we used a scare/goose cannon and also put up scare crows.
This kept the animals away and having it covered with snow part of the time helped too.

We had good luck with our one year renting the equipment but since than we made it a priority to expand bin capacity and start drying grain earlier so we don't have to deal with the hassle of clearing 2' of snow around grain bags in December.

The positives are the surge capacity, as you already stated.
Another positive is less manpower required for trucking at harvest.
Harvest more acres per day.

[Westcentralsk]

Bagger and extractor was $56000. Bags are a touch over .07c a bus. Fine to build 20000bus of bins for same price as bagger and extractor but what if you need 150000 bus of extra space?? That's what I ran into last year and after seeing rotten grain piles this spring, I know after just one year the bagger and extractor paid for itself. As far as snow plowing goes, that's one job I enjoy during the winter...much rather do that than shovel snow and rotten grain off piles. Make two passes along the one side where the truck gets loaded and clean off the bag end then empty the bag...makes a nice snow tunnel! I had my doubts about bagging but now I would rather do that than fill and empty a 3300bus flat bottom.

[saskcanfarmer]

Another cost saving that most people without a bagger don't realize is labor cost. We bag almost everything in the field so it has allowed us to go to a five man crew with three combines instead of a six or seven man crew when everything was getting hauled to bins. We bag Soft wheat/oats/barley and haul the lower yielding crops back to the bins.

[mbdog]

I have ample bin storage for owned land. For me...diluted the capital costs of bagging system by 3 way partnership, where all the parties have ample bin storage...so maybe we're each bagging up to 25% of our crops. This year, and probably most years, this will not be the case, and as such, I will not have the "bag" cost, which I can't say about excessive/bulge bin space costs. Our arrangement is easily workable cause the bagging system is so flexible, quick and mobile. For some bigger operators, I can see the system being an integral part of the harvesting operation. Labor/fuel/machinery savings and efficiencies will go a long way to paying off the bagger system.
The point of this thread was to explain how this system worked for me, and given a bit of attention, bagged grain can be maintained in good condition for a long time.
My thanks to the posters who shared actual use experiences.
Under my circumstances, the bagging arrangement I am in works, and it works well....albeit with a few animal issues. My storage situation is no different than a lot of producers out there, and having gone a year now using it, I'm now convinced that I'm never buying another grain bin.

[blackpowder]

To the question.
Attention to detail. Don't spill when filling. Proper bag tension. Proper placement. Monitor closely. Keep snowmobiles off.
Talked to company selling wildlife systems for airports. They told me there is no system work for long on bags. Suggested laying snow fence along side of bag so deer couldn't reach bag.
Reminds me of keeping cows out of the chop bin.
Any other ideas that work?
Good luck.

[wmoebis]

Yes biggest problems I have seen is holes in bags. Severe Mildew, mouldy, rotted kernels % is very low and can down grade rest of load real fast.