Propane price

[blackpowder]

Farma, I'm curious what that 10mil will cost to get to you. How far?
Gas always the cheapest, but most here can't get it affordably unless close enough to a big enough line.
Just wondering how Sask differed.

[Guest]

Is there a big cost difference between NatGas and propane for drying? If the NatGas is already available?

I know there can be supply capacity problems with small service NatGas, small services may not be able to supply bigger driers. Or you may not be able to dry during peak use season if you have a small service on a line running near capacity with other customers.

Too many times I've heard complaints about propane gouging and supply tightness.

With a decent size NatGas service you should always be able to dry. Cost of a new high capacity service is almost prohibitive. I am in the process of having a service estimate done. 10 million BTU estimated load, won't get that sucking off the end of a small line service with other customers ahead of me! Obviously this service is for more than just a drier. Possible big heated shop, etc.

Not many guys have driers around here. Seldom needed for what we're facing today but some guys use them BECAUSE THEY WANT TO! Used as a harvest management tool. Start early with tough grain and preserve quality and when the crops dry naturally they just harvest like everyone else. And good for straight cutting crops that don't mature uniformly. Alot of extra work though, transferring and drying grain that everyone wants to pay as little as possible for!!!

We are running a 250 bu super bee with 2.5 mbtu
If nothing else it keeps you sane something to do when others cant go
We dried about 70000 bu of oats , feedbarley , wheat and canola
Farm house and shops on different service
Lots of times we go to field early prepared to dry and probe first truck in yard and its dry !
Best investment we ever made
I doubt our nat gas bill will be $4000
I bet propane woulda been 4-5 times as much
Put NG in and you will never regret it
A friend was paying $1800 a day last year in the heaviest time of drying with lpg
We have never had a gas bill over $5k
Super bees are real gas misers

[farmaholic]

Blackpowder, I dont know yet on the high capacity line. When I inquired several years ago it was 30+K for a small service line to run about a mile and a half. At least I think they knew our yard was on the east side of the quarter and the line was coming from the west....not that they were assuming it was only a mile away from where they needed to tie in.

There is a NatGas station north of the community I live near. There is a high pressure line running south from that station that branches out to feed two other towns. On a piece of our land there is a riser with shut-off valves to each of those communities. I am asking if they can tap into that assembly with a regulator and a line to my farm. It would be a little closer than coming from my neighbors who are only supplied with a one inch service line. My idea is to have an adequate supply and not stifle any future growth requirements. But I bet it would cost a pile of money.

I bought the land with the existsing riser valves on it and receive nothing for the inconvenience of it being there.
Maybe on a winter cold snap I need to cut the locks and turn off the taps to the other towns until SaskEnergy sees things my way! Where do you think that will get me besides jail or the mental health floor/wing of the hospital?

I do think that would be the ultimate unlimited service but I am only a Sandbox farmer from the Slum of the Ghetto! Not a BTO. Cost is prohibitive.

The solar grain dryer sure isn't working well lately, it's getting ready for winter hibernation, kinda lazy these days....gets up later and later and goes to bed earlier and earlier!

[farmaholic]

I would sacrifice some land if they wanted to upgrade this riser site and supply me with a reasonable cost service using a regulator.

[fjlip]

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I would sacrifice some land if they wanted to upgrade this riser site and supply me with a reasonable cost service using a regulator.

And so close to that damp canola...

[fjlip]

caseih, think we had about 3 years out of 41 with this Farm Fans 180, that we set it up in August and never dried one bushel! the other 38 dried some at the start, Only 2 years dried any canola, 1986, 2009. $12,000 New in 1978. gas cost $4500, for 4.5 MBTU in 1985, thanks Grant D.

[farmaholic]

caseih, so close to the crop land that when we got the 60 foot Bourgault I snagged the protective pigpen around it. Lol, called right away to report it. They mounted flags on fiberglass rods onto two corners...hoping to improve visibility, I wasn't flying a bloody plane over It!

[flea beetle]

Where is carbon tax ?

No carbon tax in Alberta thanks to Kenny. Until the dictator in Ottawa imposes one federally next year.

It was there when NDP were in provincially

[sumdumguy]

[QUOTE=farmaholic;427011]caseih, so close to the crop land that when we got the 60 foot Bourgault I snagged the protective pigpen around it. Lol, called right away to report it. They mounted flags on fiberglass rods onto two corners...hoping to improve visibility, I wasn't flying a bloody plane over It!

You hitit? Geez!