Drying Grain....

[bucket]

Not one lentil has been dry and aerating so far has been a waste.....its a weird year...and it is great when the moisture test should be done on a clean sample but no one can enforce it....CGC won't even issue a notice to grain companies to enforce it..


Well I think the lentils are dry but the grasshopper parts and the shitty dry down of weeds is where the moisture is coming from.... .

[poorboy]

If the tough grain is warmer than night air temp a fan will dry it, humidity does not matter. If the grain is COLD only COLDER air might dry some. In this area north of #16, we rarely can aerate anything to test dry.

Yes northern areas would be a challenge. Think original poster was from Regina area which should be much warmer and air may work.

So using the principal that the air needs to be cooler than the grain to dry it, could you right after you bin the grain use a herman nelson on your fan for a 1/2 day or day to heat the grain up (and probably also dry some) and then just run the fan at night till the grain is down to night time temperatures? With the warmer grain from the Herman Nelson (or other Heater) it should allow for 2-3% moisture to be removed, and fairly cheaply in Sept or even Aug on a different year. If grain goes in hot then don’t bother heating it up, just cool at night.

[biglentil]

Yes northern areas would be a challenge. Think original poster was from Regina area which should be much warmer and air may work.

So using the principal that the air needs to be cooler than the grain to dry it, could you right after you bin the grain use a herman nelson on your fan for a 1/2 day or day to heat the grain up (and probably also dry some) and then just run the fan at night till the grain is down to night time temperatures? With the warmer grain from the Herman Nelson (or other Heater) it should allow for 2-3% moisture to be removed, and fairly cheaply in Sept or even Aug on a different year. If grain goes in hot then don’t bother heating it up, just cool at night.

Yep fill the fuel tank up in the morning it runs for 11 hours till it runs out, grain is cooled for 13 hours over night. Pulls a point a day.

[farmaholic]

So 80-95% relative humidity overnight doesn't matter?
Not every fall is like this one though!

[poorboy]

Not one lentil has been dry and aerating so far has been a waste.....its a weird year...and it is great when the moisture test should be done on a clean sample but no one can enforce it....CGC won't even issue a notice to grain companies to enforce it..


Well I think the lentils are dry but the grasshopper parts and the shitty dry down of weeds is where the moisture is coming from.... .

I used to turn my fans on and run them in the day and then shut them off at night. Made sense to me because that is when the grain did it’s drying outside, BUT I never ever got it to dry grain like that.

Read the articles that Ron Palmer has been writing the last few years about turning the fans on when the outside air is cooler than the grain and it really works for taking 1-3% moisture out of the grain. BUT it needs warm grain to work. This system has worked for me this year drying grasshoppers and weeds in my peas. 10 years ago I would have laughed at anyone turning the bin fans on at the same time the straw gets tough combining and now here I am doing that.

[Guest]

Not one lentil has been dry and aerating so far has been a waste.....its a weird year...and it is great when the moisture test should be done on a clean sample but no one can enforce it....CGC won't even issue a notice to grain companies to enforce it..


Well I think the lentils are dry but the grasshopper parts and the shitty dry down of weeds is where the moisture is coming from.... .

Ok question for you southern grasshopper people , can you ever have too many in the sample ?
Lots in there ? And have had lots of rain ?
Zero experience those little bastards ?

[poorboy]

So 80-95% relative humidity overnight doesn't matter?
Not every fall is like this one though!

No 100% humidity doesn’t matter. For every 10 degrees C the air temp rises it cuts the humidity in 1/2. So if your grain is warm the air gets heated up blowing through your grain and the humidity drops because the air expands and it actually dries your grain.

Only works for a few nights though because once your grain cools down it can’t warm up the incoming air.

So early in the season when the grain is usually very warm is when it is cheapest to remove 1-3% using air bins.

[poorboy]

Yep fill the fuel tank up in the morning it runs for 11 hours till it runs out, grain is cooled for 13 hours over night. Pulls a point a day.

So if I had 19 wheat in Early to mid September I could pull 5% out and get it to 14% moisture? I have never tried adding a little heat early in the year. Done a little emergency drying in November. Would be a useful tool early in my harvest if I could do tougher grains.

[farmaholic]

So once you've lost the grain's abolity to warm the incoming air you're hooped and have to rely on daytime heat and low RH to dry. Or add supplemental heat like biglentil and pump cool air in at night.

No wonder previous recommendations suggested running fans continuously, probably works good in real warm daytime highs and cool nights.

Time to read that controversial study/report again.

[farmaholic]

Mother Nature can dry a swath or standing crop real fast.....if she wants to.....many many times more efficient than anything I can do!
Pressure is on to salvage/ preserve some quality before "potential" rain on Monday.
I hate dealing with tough grain. Added costs and time.....for what? So someone can pick it to pieces with a tweezer and pay you as little as possible?