Fast dry grain in five days
BY RON LYSENG WINNIPEG BUREAU
Boost dryer efficiency 30 percent by converting bins into dryers.
Bin management can lower capital costs while boosting the number of bushels dried in a week. It’s all a matter of how you use your combine, bins, dryer and trucks.
The process is called fast dry. It’s a cost-effective way to convert bins into grain dryers, said Dave Wall in a phone interview, adding that Wall Grain has shown hundreds of farmers how to extract more money from their crops and increase dryer efficiency by 20 to 30 percent.
The process uses heat to speed natural air drying in the bin. The four fast-dry factors are roof fans, multiple fans, self-adjusting grain spreaders and managing technology.
• Roof fans — Mid-September has cooler nights and dripping water creates a mess on walls, reducing the amount of moisture removed. Wall Grain designed a roof fan that reduces dripping by pushing moisture out of the space under the roof. More importantly, it keeps the roof at a constant temperature so moisture doesn’t condense.
• Multiple fans — Wall says that as bins got bigger, his engineers began installing multiple fans.
Two 25 horsepower motors will dry 25,000 to 35,000 bushels in each bin of cereals or canola. In five to seven days each bin is done.
• Self-adjusting spreader — With bin diameters up to 54 feet, peaks are high. They should be level for more consistent drying. Taking a load or two out of the bin would do it but that’s a lot of work. Grain spreaders can handle augers up to 16 inches and feature selfadjusting springs that allow constant feed on the spreading arms/ pans. Having a spread rather than a peak means less over-dried grain that needs to be blended.
• Moisture-managing technology — Knowing how much water needs to be removed helps manage the batches. Wall Grain developed a fast-dry calculator for cereals and canola. Management advisers help match fans to each operation and teach customers to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
The beauty of the fast-dry concept is that bins can be designed for later addition of accessories like a continuous flow dryer.