Liberal Seed and Farm in conjunction with the Barton County Extension Office hosted a Grain Storage Tour on Tuesday, July 30th. The informational event showcased the new elevator facility which attracted over 200 people from the town and surrounding farming communities to get up speed on best practices for the grain storage structure, moisture equilibrium and safety.
Jill Scheidt, a Barton County agronomy specialist, noted it had been a couple of years since such an event was held. She explained, “I figured we had better do it again and I decided to do it here in Liberal because Seed and Farm just put up these new bins. I thought it would be nice for the community to come out here to look at them and there was an interest for it so that’s why we planned it.”
Bin structures and planning considerations led the agenda. Bob Schultheis, the natural resource engineering specialist from Webster County’s Extension office, noted that many farmers are considering expanding their facilities or changing some of their old facilities out. “Our goal was to get them thinking a little bit and thinking to the future and what they might have their facilities look like so they don’t build too small,” he said.
Farmers need to consider the factors of site selection, bin selection, drying systems and bin layout. “You have to think about how that fits into the whole farm operation all the way out to the harvesting process,” said Schultheis, “along with sizing the storage and drying facilities appropriately to the size of the equipment you have or will have in the future.”
Putting up a sound grain facility may sound a bit like a science project in itself; however; the drying process and maintaining good moisture equilibrium are sciences that demand the farmer’s attention to preserve grain quality. Schultheis noted, “While keeping track in storage you have to watch for temperature and moisture problems as well as possible insect issues.
“Temperature, I wouldn’t say it’s harder to maintain. It depends what your moisture content is when you bring your grain out of the field and what the system is sized for, in terms of drying capacity, so you can bring that moisture down to a safe storage level.” The key to temperature control is adjusting and maintaining the grain temperature to within 15 to 20 degrees of the outside temperature.
One topic of debate concerned fan operations during rainy periods. Schultheis pointed out that determination rests in where you are in the grain drying process. He explained, “Early on in the process you can keep the fans running because it’s not going to hurt anything since you won’t pick up a lot of moisture during that time period, but if you’re late in the drying stage and you have most of that grain dry while still having a little bit of moist grain at the top it’s worthwhile to shut the fans off so you don’t bring the moisture content back up.”
He added that during the drying phase, farmers are pushing the moisture out of the grain and moving it out. It’s important to keep the fans on all the time while you’re doing that so that drying front moves on through and you don’t trap that moisture or get condensation in the grain at some point in the drying layer.
“A larger bin diameter rather than a taller dimension could work to your advantage as it allows you to spread the layer out so you could move the drying front through a layer that is not so deep,” Schultheis said. Moving a drying front through taller bins of equal capacity takes more time and may interfere with the ability to process the grain through a system. Protecting grain quality by keeping up good moisture equilibrium sets a foundation for safety margins too.
Grain bins do have serious pitfalls regarding personal safety. By recognizing certain conditions in the bin farmers can avoid putting themselves and helping hands at risk.
Crusting caused by too much moisture in the bin can be as dangerous as attempting to tread ice covering a flowing stream. Just like the ice, the crusting can easily give way leading to grain drowning. High moisture also creates environments within the bin that have a direct impact on air quality.
“Some of the mold issues that may be in there that could create respiratory problems so you must have respiratory protection to enter those environments,” Schultheis noted. Fermentation of some of the grain also produces toxic gases that may lead to injury or death.
Schultheis gave a graphic demonstration how quickly and easily a person could become trapped should someone attempt to move grain inside the bin while it is discharging. The demonstration showed that a person inside the bin has only two or three seconds to respond once the bin augers start and that person is trapped inside the draining grain in four to five seconds. The grain becomes like quicksand and completely devours the victim.
“A person’s reaction time no matter how fast it is, it isn’t fast enough to avoid an accident,” he warned, “If you have to be in a bin then wear the appropriate safety equipment. Never go in one without telling someone that you’re in there. You also have to make sure all the equipment is shutdown and locked out so nobody else can turn it on while you’re in the bin. It’s important to have someone standing by to rescue you in case you do get into trouble.”
Grain storage is obviously necessary to any successful farming operation and like any of those operations their success in the short and long term rely on planning, operation oversight and implementation of sound safety protocols to protect both the farmer and the harvest.
