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Occasional use grain dryer set ups

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    Occasional use grain dryer set ups

    Saskfarmer and others who have older cheaper grain handling set ups that are only for occasional use, what does your set up look like and what would you change? I have a 40 year old vertec dryer that almost never gets used as I have no real setup for it and normally I never need it as I live East of Calgary and mother nature usually gets the job done. None of the grain terminals here have driers as usually they are not needed. Aeration has been king here, not so much for drying grain, but for keeping grain storeable till it can be hauled and blended with dry grain at the terminal.

    With the possibility of preharvest roundup disappearing and looking to grow more malt barley, it looks like I could use a grain dryer to add a few harvest days every year to get going quicker after a rain.

    Saskfarmer you have posted pictures lately of your grain cart in front of your dryer. Is it just a large wet bin and then a single dry bin that you empty as needed? I assume you have a 5-10,000 bushel wet bin and then a 10,000+ bushel dry bin? What ratio of wet bin to dry bin is needed? I am thinking that ideally I would need something that would allow me to combine wheat at 16-18% moisture, with 2 combines and thresh for 7 hours, then continue the next day or hopefully then the grain will be dry (in normal harvest). I assume that someone keeps emptying the dry bin all day and then overnight the automatic dryer will either run till the dry bin is full or the wet bin is empty.

    With this years crappy harvest weather, I am thinking about setting up the 40 year old vertec dryer that I have on a cement pad and hoping to get it handy enough to use a little bit every year or every second year. Thinking 35,000 bushels a year max. All of my bins are in a straight row now and I could possibly set up a dryer permanently behind the row. Will have to remain a simple auger set up as I don't have the desire or resources to build a fancy grain handling set up. Moving grain away from the dryer will be a pain in the butt, but perhaps if set up correctly is could be done every morning before the combines start threshing. In the future perhaps I move up to a newer dryer.

    I would like the system to be able to run a few hours into the night on its own with out babysitting. Perhaps security cameras could be set up to monitor from the house?

    Currently the old dryer was set up to pull out of a 1700 bushel wet bin and dump into a 5000 bushel flat bottom bin. How much wet bin storage do 2 combines need for September harvesting and how much dry bin storage if it gets emptied every morning and little bit during the day during combining?

    #2
    Our system was changed 6 years ago and it runs 24/7

    Biggerfeed augers bigger wet bins and dry bins plus set up to dump dry quick to bags.

    Plus 4 semis and Carts.

    Next phase is 17000 wet bins feeding bigger dryer but since we are still in harvest mode our dryer won’t be sold till after we are done.

    Then order new bigger one for next year delivery and set up.

    Use most years here

    Comment


      #3
      I'll share my STO setup. I put the augers with electric motors and dryer in a shed when I'm done for the year. Used the setup 4 years out of the last 5. Two hopper bins. Wet 2000, Dry 2300. Farm Fans 180 dryer. Enough amps between them to run everything. Toughest part is lining up where the dryer needs to sit every year then putting a couple railway ties under it. I don't think that you need to have a dryer that can keep up to your combines for a day. I'd need three times the capacity dryer for that. You need hopper bins maybe with air to keep grain for a few days while the dryer catches up. A couple 10" loadout augers can move grain around in a hurry. Just before this wet crap hit I had a whole bunch of wheat swaths out there. Thought I'd speed some along by swathing. Took it all off at 16. Rain hit and I spent the next few days drying it. My drying is sitting idle now. Bigger capacity would have cost me more but not helped me any.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Tucker View Post
        I'll share my STO setup. I put the augers with electric motors and dryer in a shed when I'm done for the year. Used the setup 4 years out of the last 5. Two hopper bins. Wet 2000, Dry 2300. Farm Fans 180 dryer. Enough amps between them to run everything. Toughest part is lining up where the dryer needs to sit every year then putting a couple railway ties under it. I don't think that you need to have a dryer that can keep up to your combines for a day. I'd need three times the capacity dryer for that. You need hopper bins maybe with air to keep grain for a few days while the dryer catches up. A couple 10" loadout augers can move grain around in a hurry. Just before this wet crap hit I had a whole bunch of wheat swaths out there. Thought I'd speed some along by swathing. Took it all off at 16. Rain hit and I spent the next few days drying it. My drying is sitting idle now. Bigger capacity would have cost me more but not helped me any.
        Good work , around here 16 is bone dry lol.
        Anyway good to see guys use their driers and have it pay off .

        Comment


          #5
          Our cheap set up..4800 bushel wet bin..2200 bushel dry bin.old super B dryer that runs great.small 130 bushel dryer but run 24/7 if we get behind..have air in every bin for the not so wet grain. Or cooling..
          Dryer goes in shed for off season.

          Comment


            #6
            Tucker and Partners,

            I see that one of you has a wet and dry bin that are almost the same size. Other has a wet bin 2x bigger than the dry bin. What do you think the ideal ratio would be for wet bin size to dry bin size? I was thinking that dry bin 2x the size of the wet bin would probably be ideal as I could dry a little as the wet bin gets filled during the day and then move it later. Not sure if you guys just used bins that you had and thats the size they were, or if you picked them that size.

            My dryer does not need to keep up to my combines, that would be way too expensive for the few times that I need a dryer, but it does need to be handy so it gets used. I do have a few hopper bins that could be moved around to help feed/empty a dryer. Right now they are located in bad spots to utilize a dryer. Just trying to get my head around how it should look and still be simple and cheap.

            Saskfarmer3,

            I did not realize that you were drying 24/7. Do you have a dedicated person checking the dryer at night and shifting grain around or is the system large enough to run on its own all night without filling the dry bin or running out of wet grain? From your previous posts and photos I some how pictured your operation over the last 2 weeks as threshing for 7 hours a day and then drying that grain by the time the combines started the next day. Then in a real bad year bagging it and drying later. How big of a wet bin and dry bin do you think is needed for say 2 combines?



            Is an auto batch dryer easier to use for say 5,000-12,000 bushel batches than a continuous flow dryer?

            Hopefully mother nature quits crying and things start to dry up soon. Would be nice to set the old dryer up and then not need to use it.

            Comment


              #7
              A picture of our grain dryer. We use it every year...



              The animated version:




              Oddly it stopped working for the last three weeks.

              My attempt at inconsiderate humour.

              Comment


                #8
                you might be onto something maybe its not that surprising that they shut down that big solar observatory in New Mexico. Nothing left to look at for past three weeks!!!

                https://www.wired.com/story/the-strange-sad-case-of-sunspot-the-empty-astronomy-town/

                Comment


                  #9
                  With the larger wet bin we can combine the whole day with dryer running .we run 1 combine..
                  Had smaller wet bin before and was full to quick..we empty dry bin at night or early morning.
                  Ideal would be dryer twice the size..dry bin twice the size..

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by farmaholic View Post
                    A picture of our grain dryer. We use it every year...



                    The animated version:




                    Oddly it stopped working for the last three weeks.

                    My attempt at inconsiderate humour.

                    Maybe I could rent it from you when you are done. Seems to be on holidays over here lately.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Bigger is better, faster, easier, doesn’t matter what the scale is

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I do apologize for the insensitive nature of the post under the current crappy weather conditions we are facing.

                        Just trying to lighten the mood.

                        Comment


                          #13


                          not much to look at. but it works. been wanting to make something better for years but keeps getting put off.

                          use it as a continuous batch. gsi dryer. i like it. holds 450bu. load in wet is a 7", load out a 8". which only operates the load/unload time at half the speed its capable of. but will dry down 18to19ish to 14 wheat in about 25 to 30 minutes then a cool down of 15 minutes, then load in/load out cycle in 24 minutes. so roughly 1.25 hours a batch.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Click image for larger version

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                            Automatic system. Its tied to fill augers and unload augers and can be run 24/7.

                            Canola under 20 and wheat we have done.

                            Into bag as if you screwed up easy to deal with.

                            Never a problem yet.

                            Click image for larger version

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                            Click image for larger version

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                            We use swingaway auger to dump 13 in and bigger tractor for tough grain.

                            8 in supercharged to load dryer and wet bin has air.

                            8 in super charged to empty and 10 in to load cart for bag or conveyor.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              How many bushels does that big beast hold?
                              IS the fan super quiet like they say?

                              Comment

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