Ask the Doctor: Spring Grain Preservation

As the weather gets warmer, the storability of many grain hybrids decreases. What does that mean? The safe storage moisture content of grain hybrids decreases as the temperature increases. This is because the relative humidity of the hybrids increases as the moisture content remains the same. As relative humidity increases, the risk of spoilage increases. Therefore, monitoring plays an important role in safeguarding the stored grain. The next aspect is condensation. How can you avoid condensation during spring? When the ambient temperatures increase above 40-50°F, there will be condensation. For example, when the ambient temperature reaches above 50°F, the grain temperature below 30°F which comes in contact with this temperature will gather condensation. To help avoid this, you can warm your grain up to 40°F.

• When loading the grain bin, fines and foreign materials accumulate in the center, or core, of the bin. The process of removing the fines and foreign materials accumulated at the center is called coring.
• The fines and foreign materials in the center block airflow and reduce air velocity; if not cored this low airflow will cause spoilage.
• Coring is normally done after you have completed loading the bin with peaked grain mass configuration. You need to core the grain up to half of the diameter of the bin as your core diameter. For example, on a 36’ diameter bin, it will have a 18’ core diameter and 9’ on each side and for a 48’ diameter bin, it will have a 24’ core diameter and 12’ on each side. Another formula to find out the coring volume (bushels to be removed) is calculated as diameter³/90. For example, for a 36’ diameter bin, the coring volume is 36³/90=518.4 bu, which is equivalent to a little over half load of 900 bu truck. For a 48’ diameter bin, the coring volume is  48³/90=1228.8 bu.

• If the selling time of your grain is in June, July and August, then you need to warm the grain from March or April based on the temperature rise. The rule of thumb is to keep the average grain temperature 10-15°F less than the average ambient temperature. However, if the selling date is in May, you can keep the grain temperature as it is without warming the grain.

• The over drying of grains in the bottom layer of a bin is very common phenomenon. In order to dry the top layer quickly, we may sacrifice the bottom layer to over drying. Otherwise, sometimes by the time the drying front reaches the top layer it’s already spoiled. If you keep the grain depth greater than 25’ (7 ring wide for example), it may not be possible to avoid over-drying on the bottom without spoiling the top layers. Using grain monitoring such as BinManager, the over-drying of bottom layers can be avoided if the grain depth is less than 25’. BinManager selects air EMC in such a way that over-drying of the bottom layer is avoided. However, the grain depth should be less than 25’ for BinManager to work efficiently. If the grain depth is more than 25’, you may still end up spoiling the top layers of grain. BinManager will be waiting for good air EMC to avoid over-drying and by the time it reaches the top layer it will be spoiled.