grain drying

[dfarms11]

Anyone change over their grain dryer to burn coal or wood or grain? Just wondering what it would take to convert to a cheaper way to dry grain.

[poorboy]

Have you looked at the in bin drying? I found that by using supplemental heat with my aeration fan I could dry grain for a very reasonable cost. I was able to hook up to my natural gas system in my yard. My grain dryer was too large for my natural gas system.

Very trouble free, just fill the bin and walk away for awhile. Any big rental shop, such as Cat rentals can rent huge construction heaters in natural gas or propane.

The downside is you have to mix the grain well to get the moisture averaged out. Either do smaller amounts so it is easier to mix on unload, or severly overdry one bin and mix it with bins of tough grain when you empty the bin. I just put a 1/3 of the bottom of the truck with tough grain from the first bin, then a 1/3 layer of overdry grain, and then a 1/3 ot tough grain on top, and on unload it seems to mix out well. If your bins are close enough together you could have 2 augers filling the truck at the same time to mix the grain.

The biggest cost to drying grain is to get the grain warm. Using a grain dryer such as a vertec there is a lot of wasted hot air leaving the dryer, where in a bin setup with aeration fan the air leaving the bin is cool. Almost no wasted heat.

[dfarms11]

I see what you mean but, if I could heat my vertec with coal, It would be so cheap to dry. I like to be able to run the grain through the dryer and its done, no worry's.

[dfarms11]

I have a 5500 bu bin with air, how long does it take to dry it with a heater in front of the fan and how much would it cost compared to using the grain dryer?

[poorboy]

I am not sure of the cost to run a vertec with coal. It would take about 3 million btu's to dry at any speed this time of year, and that would cost a lot for a coal boiler in that size range. It would be set up for a long time at a cheap cost if drying is something you have to do every year.

The last time I looked it was about 1/3 of the cost to bin dry with a large heater hooked to your aeration fan as compared to a vertec dryer with propane. The advantages to in bin drying are no babysitting. The disadvantage is you have to mix the grain somehow with an in bin system. The bottom grain is very dry 6-8% moisture and the top 2/3 of the bin is still tough when the bin is at "average dry".

I have overdryed the whole bin before and mixed it off with a tough bin on load out and it works well if you can get the tough grain to safely store until you need to load it out.

The disadvantage of coal is the cost to get set up. The boiler, heat exchanger and hopper bin for the coal supply will be expensive. You will need a lot of coal if you dry much grain.

If you are thinking a long term useage and lots of bushels every year then coal would be an excellent choice.

They also sell grain baggers, which are supposed to be able to store tough grain for up to 2 years with no spoilage. You could put it in a bag tough and then deliver it next spring/summer when no one seems to care if your grain is tough or dry because they usually have lots of dry grain coming in at that time of year. Most people tend to sell their tough grain first and the companies either can't handle it all or they have a discount for taking it. Often they don't even test for moisture in June and July.