Drying grain that won't flow

[Ronski]

I deleted my whiny rant from last night about wet wheat. Now to deal with the issue.

I have very wet wheat in piles, went in at 16-20% but now with some snow mixed in its well into the 20's loading into trucks and it won't flow out of a hopper trailer after a 400 km drive.

Will it bridge off in my recirculating batch drier? Or will the heat of the grain melt the snow as it circulates and starts to dry letting it continue to flow?
I had hoped to sell it tough but it doesn't look like an option so I either have to dry it in the cold weather (another question about can I get enough propane into the drier at -15 to dry grain?) or consolidate the piles and hope it keeps till spring.

I don't have aeration available, just a batch drier. Would a continuous flow drier work better (except for the multiple passes to get it dry).

Thanks for any suggestions, especially telling me what didn't work before I have to learn it myself.

[LEP]

Dryers dryers going everywhere here. We dried 23% durum no problem.

Do yourself a favour and seperate as much snow as possible. Snow mixed with dry grain will cause bridging too.

I am not super experienced with dryers but likely -20 ish is a limit if you are on propane.

Good luck.

[Oliver88]

Jan 16-20 appears to be a warmer stretch, I am planning to dry tough wheat than with propane as well.

I'm not an expert with snow bridging but I've noticed this fall that excessive moisture makes grain hard to get out of a combine hopper, grain cart or even hopper bin at times.

[VK58]

Been years but remember mixing some dry grain into a batch, extremely slow process but it does work. Even seen wheat or barley mixed with flax/canola to get going. We still have an old coffee grinder dryer sitting in the yard, rusty burn marks on the screens, caused by extremely tough grain/snow/ice not flowing. good luck feel for you guys. sorry forgot take out 1/2 batch, fill with tough, dry, rinse repeat.

[bgmb]

Set up batch by pile dry straight out of the pile ????

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I realize this is not what you were asking, but I have been drying wheat, canola and barley in the bins with aeration and herman nelsons during all weather so far this winter. The only trouble I've found with the really cold weather is that the condensation is that much worse in the bin. The wheat wouldn't flow before I started, canola and barley did.

[hedgehog]

I realize this is not what you were asking, but I have been drying wheat, canola and barley in the bins with aeration and herman nelsons during all weather so far this winter. The only trouble I've found with the really cold weather is that the condensation is that much worse in the bin. The wheat wouldn't flow before I started, canola and barley did.

Have dried loads of 30% wheat in scotland, though not at -15.
With a round type dryer you have to leave a quarter full of dry wheat or the central auger just stops
Will it keep till spring?
We used grain spears with fans to suck the heat from piles of wet grain

[seldomseen]

I have dried a big pile of wheat testing 24% with a GT circulating batch dryer on propane. The wheat was hard to auger and wouldn't flow out of the truck very good and if I remember right about four hours of heat per batch. The dryer needed a tractor to turn it so I built a small shed out of scrap 2+4 and plywood and tarps so all the tractor heat went in the dryer and that really saved on propane. The exhaust pipe went up threw a hole in the roof and the front of the shed was open so the tractor and dryer could get air. The shed and tractor were facing south and on a sunny day it would warm right up in that shed. I would shut it down if it got below -20
Its going to be a big job so good luck with everthing

[seldomseen]

MY GT dryer has a agitator that runs around the top of the hopper part that keeps everything moving.

[Koldkanuck]

What size are your piles? We used dry with a batch type drier , and it took forever with over 20% moisture wheat. You need an agitator for very wet grain in a batch drier or it will cause problems. It's also more time consuming. Even an older continuous dryer like a MC (Mathews Company) will be twice as fast , depending on size, once its set up. We used to pile wet grain up to 24% moisture, but if we could not keep up drying we would auger that pile into a new pile, using a front end loader. I've seen guys that would have to spread grain piles with a grader to cool the grain off in -25 degree weather. Not fun.

[farmaholic]

pardon my ignorance/arrogance/stupidity/disbelief/empathy/sympathy..... but how could this ever pay, especially if there are quality problems? My goodness...if feel for you guys!

[makar]

its not about pay, its about salvage and hoping to seed another crop. Leaving that crop rot in the field may pencil better but also might not not be seeded in the spring.