By Tom J. Bechman, Midwest Crops Editor, Missouri Ruralist
How many bushels of stored grain can you afford to lose, even at $4 corn and $9.50 soybeans? How much extra time can you afford to spend dealing with clogged augers?
Zero, right? Randy Sheley offers advice to help keep you out of those scenarios. He is a grain conditioning product specialist for GSI. Here are questions that often arise related to keeping grain safe later into the year. Sheley provides answers:
I will store 50,000 bushels of corn and 20,000 bushels of soybeans until at least midsummer. What should I do to keep grain in shape? That depends on which of two key methods of preventing condensation you chose last fall. Did you keep grain close to ambient temperature as it cooled off last fall? Or did you keep grain just above freezing into spring?
If you cooled grain and then ran fans to complete a cooling cycle anytime average ambient temp swung consistently 10 degrees, that changed grain temperature. In spring, you should have reversed the process and warmed it gradually into spring and summer.
If instead you cooled beans all the way down, covered fans to prevent convection currents in the bin, and left fans covered until midspring so grain would stay cool, now it’s time to run fans again. Run them regularly to keep grain close to ambient temperature. It never hurts to keep fans covered when not running to prevent convection currents from entering the bin.
Do corn and soybeans need to be handled differently in storage? No. The same principles apply for both.
Without a monitoring system, how do I check grain? It depends on whether you have a push-up or pull-down system. In push-up systems, air flows into fans at the bottom of the bin and moves upward through grain to the top. In a pull-down system, air enters vents at the top and moves downward through the grain column, exiting at the bottom.
In a push-up system, smell air coming from roof vents to detect any major problems. You can also walk on top of the grain to see if crusting occurred.
If you are walking on grain, what safety rules apply? If walking on grain, it is very important to be tied off to eliminate the dangers of falling through any bridged grain. It is also very important to not enter the bin while alone. Tragically, many folks lose their lives by not taking proper precautions.
Never enter a bin that you suspect may have bridged grain in it. Bridged grain occurs when spoiled grain cements itself together. Sometimes, it can hold together even if grain below it has been removed.
What if my bin uses pull-down aeration? Spoilage normally occurs in grain nearest the floor. Air pulled out by fans will normally have a sour smell if grain is spoiled. So, be sure to smell for odors near fans while they are running.
Also, another way to check is to pull a small amount of grain from the center discharge to visually look for spoilage.