The secret to hauling more beans than you harvested

Farmers Spill Their Secrets for Grain Quality and Value 

In this edition of The State of Soy, produced by the Iowa Soybean Association, Aaron Putze, Chief Officer of Brand Management & Engagement, got AGI’s Ryan Thompson (also a South Dakota farmer) and Adel, Iowa farmer Burke Knoll to share some of their secrets about using technology to manage stored grain quality and, ultimately, market commodities for optimum value. 

Ryan’s Secret: Leverage in-bin monitoring to retain premium value of stored crops. 

"A lot more growers are talking about efficiency. We have these bins on farm -- how do we get more out of them? And, by utilizing technology like AGI BinManager, it gives growers that opportunity for one more thing that they can improve efficiency on,” says Ryan. “When you think about all the technology that we use to plant a crop and grow a crop, it makes perfect sense to utilize technology in how we’re storing that crop and get the most out of it.”  

Burke’s Secret: Use technology to manage grain in storage and increase moisture.  

After harvesting very dry beans last year, AGI BinManager helped Burke better manage his beans in the bin and gain moisture.  

“The beans last year were around 8 or 9%, and then when we finished up hauling beans this past summer, they were 13%. So we gained 4%, and 1.3% shrinkage for every percent of moisture, there’s 4 to 5% more beans there than when we put them in. So that adds up.” says Burke. “Margins are tight and you need to get everything you can and this is one way to get back some margin. It’s (AGI BinManager) very easy to operate. We run it off an iPad or iPhone.”  

Iowa Soybean Association members can receive discounts on AGI’s bin management systems. Learn more here.