“GrainVue is a temperature and moisture monitoring system for inside grain bins,” says Dave Ellis, GSI’s district manager.

“It can be added to new or existing bins. It will read real-time temperature and moisture.”

Available on an annual subscription basis, the system hardware uses a built-in cellular connection to send information to the cloud. Growers can log into the system online to get real-time data or send instructions to the system’s controller on the bins to start or stop fans.

GrainVue can also be preset to turn fans on or off based on conditions both inside and outside the bin.

“It comes with a weather station that takes into account humidity, temperature and all those components,” says Ellis.

“You can have automatic fan control to where it would kick the fan on for you when it’s supposed to at the optimum time and temperature. You can set your own parameters.

“You can actually rehydrate (soy)beans with it if there’s humidity in the air and the beans are dry. It will kick on and put moisture back into the beans, increasing your profitability.”

GrainVue users can also set the system up to send alerts. Those alert conditions can be customized to meet any grower’s preferences.

The system can handle the input from a number of sensor cables inside the bin, which gives a grower flexibility in deciding how closely the grain is monitored.

“You can do the minimum, which is one in the centre,” says Ellis.

“Our recommendation is to add more. You can have moisture and temperature cables. It’s all how in-depth you want to read the entire bin. These are all digital cables, not analogue.

“The good thing about this system is it’s modular. You can start out with just one basic cable without fan control. If you like it, you can start adding components whenever you want to.”

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At Ag in Motion in July, we spoke with two product reps on the show grounds about two things in particular that producers should watch for when it comes to grain storage: moisture and temperature.

“When Mother Nature doesn’t do her bit to dry the crop so they don’t need any additional attention, that’s when a grain dryer is an invaluable piece of equipment for farmers,” says Ron Kleuskens, technical sales rep with AGI.

Due to drier conditions, the past few growing seasons have seen less of a demand for on-farm grain drying added Kleuskens, but weather cycles often come with an element of surprise.

Kleuskens says deciding on a grain dryer shouldn’t be a last-minute decision as there is more to consider than the actual build, such as electrical work.

“The more forethought you put into it gives dealers and builders time to make sure everything is up when you need it,” he says.

“Just because they’ve got the equipment in it doesn’t mean the electrician can just snap to it. There’s other parts to it.”

READ MORE: Being proactive in storage, handling key to grain safety

Back in July at the show, Kleuskens said it was about a six- to eight-week lead time to set up a grain dryer once a sale is finalized.

Once your grain is inside the bin and dried to an optimal level, bin monitoring systems can offer an added layer of security and peace of mind.

Flaman was one exhibitor at Ag in Motion that offers bin monitoring equipment. Its product, Bin-Sense, is a remote grain monitoring device that keeps you in the loop about the condition of grain inside your bin by triggering an alert if the temperature or moisture of your grain rises above a set threshold.

“Once there is a rise in temperature, the system will send a notification to your phone or computer and it alerts you to a temperature spike,” says Kent Sackmann, grain monitoring manager wth Flaman.

Once an alert is received, a producer can take corrective action such as turning on aeration fans or moving grain as needed.

The Bin-Sense app (available for both Android and Apple) allows a user to monitor their grain from a smartphone or by logging into the website via a desktop computer.

Sackmann shared that producers with higher-value crops in their bins are more likely to use a remote bin monitoring system.

So, depending on where you may be in your crop rotation — and where you predict grain prices may be headed — may spur your decision to invest in a remote grain bin monitoring system.

The Canadian Grain Commission offers safe storage guidelines of all major crops to help producers avoid bin spoilage.

The post How to manage wet grains for storage appeared first on Grainews.

In part, it means being proactive by keeping grain in good condition. A key reason people become trapped in grain is because the stored product has gone out-of-condition; keeping grain in good condition lessens the need to enter a grain bin. That’s especially critical for canola, which is particularly susceptible to spoilage in storage.

Andre Harpe is vice-chair of the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA) and a third-generation farmer with around 5,000 acres of canola, barley and grass seed northwest of Grande Prairie, Alta.

“When it comes to grain, you have to be very careful around it, and the safest way to do that is to stay out of it,” Harpe says. “Many of the injuries I know of have been the result of canola sweating and creating a crust at the top. So, it’s very important that canola, and all grain, is stored correctly and safely.”

“Being proactive and on top of things is the best bet, because, unfortunately, it’s pretty simple for canola to spoil,” says Breanna Miller Friesen, an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada.

“The critical time to make sure grain is conditioned properly is in the initial post-harvest time. If canola goes into the bin with a higher moisture or if it’s quite warm, then we’re already increasing the chances of an issue later down the line.”

Since canola is sensitive to moisture, getting it down to eight per cent moisture and less than 15 C in temperature as soon as possible is key for safe long-term storage.

Of course, it’s not just the grain that farmers need to be mindful of in storage — dockage (grain dust, weed seeds, et cetera) and green canola can also have a significant impact as they tend to have more moisture than canola seeds.

“Ninety-nine per cent or more of seeds can be dried down and mature, but then there are those small pockets with high-moisture green seeds and that can cause spoilage,” Miller Friesen says.

Proper airflow is also essential for canola. As Miller Friesen explains, canola is a challenging crop for airflow because of its small size and round shape, which leaves fewer air pockets than other grains, and getting adequate air circulation can require more effort with larger storage facilities.

Once canola is in storage, it’s necessary to regularly monitor temperature and moisture levels. While monitoring is particularly crucial during the initial storage period to ensure the product is cooling down properly, Miller-Friesen stresses the importance of staying on top of monitoring year-round.

“Farmers can’t get complacent about monitoring their stored canola, particularly as the warmer weather comes in. Towards the end of winter, I know a lot of farmers are thinking about seeding and getting ready for the season ahead. But it’s important to still keep stored canola top of mind,” Miller Friesen says, noting cold snaps during the winter are an ideal time to run fans and move cool air around proactively.

“Considering how quickly a bin can spoil, a lot of farmers check their storage weekly or biweekly to stay ahead of things.”

On Harpe’s farm, monitoring stored grain is a regular occurrence, which he says makes it both easier and safer to detect issues early on.

“As soon as we see that something is happening to the canola, if it is starting to sweat or if it’s starting to get a bit warm, we pull it out of storage and move it or dry it,” he says.

In grain bins, heat rising in the centre and cooling off from the colder canola on the outside can lead to issues with moisture and spoilage. Crusted or heated seed at the top of a bin, typically in a cone shape, indicates that quick action is needed to prevent further spoilage.

“If out-of-condition canola is caught early enough, where some of it is just starting to spoil, it’s best to isolate and remove the spoiled canola as soon as possible and then get fans running and potentially move the remaining canola to another bin,” Miller Friesen says.

“The biggest thing is to catch out-of-condition canola before it impacts the entire bin. When a full bin is compromised, it is a very scary situation that hopefully few people ever have to experience.”

Proper practices pivotal

“My stance is that I want everyone to go home at night the same way they came to work, and the only way to do that is to try and keep things as safe as possible. Being proactive with good canola storage practices is a big part of that,” Harpe says. CCGA, Alberta Canola, SaskOilseeds and the Manitoba Canola Growers Association have been supporters of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association’s BeGrainSafe program since it launched in 2017.

The return, he says, is far greater than just unspoiled canola.

“One of my employees likes working on my farm because of how we proactively address safety, and he has told me he feels safer on my farm. When you are proactive and work to keep things as safe as possible, it makes for a better working environment, which benefits the entire farm,” Harpe says.

Although some may have an “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” approach to certain farming practices, Harpe says it’s important for farmers to stay up to date on new techniques and consider the return on investment for technologies that can boost efficiency — such as with monitoring stored grain — and improve safety.

“There is always room for improvement on any farm. At the end of the day, a safe farm is a successful farm.”

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“This marriage allows the opportunity to build upon the synergies between Shivvers’ established drying solutions and the cutting-edge technology Haber already offers in way of real-time remote grain storage monitoring and automated conditioning, ultimately creating a more comprehensive solution for farmers,” the two companies said in a statement.

The Haber business stemmed from an idea hatched in an ag engineering class at Iowa State University, out of which the company’s co-founders Eric Harweger and Dillon Hurd came up with what’s now known as the DRI-Stack aeration system.

STIG will market the DRI-Stack system and DRI-Stack hopper bins along with the Auto-Bin grain storage monitoring system. Auto-Bin allows growers to track bin temperature, grain moisture, grain inventory levels, carbon dioxide levels and their aeration systems’ power use through a smartphone app.

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Today, John Deere is taking the suspense out of that wait by making it possible to determine protein or oil content information on wheat, barley or canola right on the combine in the field, and on the go. Deere is offering an updated version of its HarvestLab 3000 system that is now capable of grain sensing. It can be retrofitted to 2018 model year or newer John Deere S700 series combines.

Grain sensing is the fourth application of the HarvestLab 3000. Deere initially made the system available for its line of self-propelled forage harvesters to monitor the quality of the feed coming out of their spouts. It then added the ability to monitor the quality of liquid manure being spread on a field. HarvestLab could also be used as a stationary device to analyze feed quality samples.

The new grain sensing feature continuously measures and monitors protein, starch and oil values in wheat, barley or canola in real time as the combine works its way through fields. It also associates that data to specific areas of a field. The results can then be viewed in the combine, or via the John Deere Operations Center.

“When a farmer has site-specific data on a field’s harvest quality, they know if the wheat coming out of the field is of baking or fodder quality,” says Christopher Murray, marketing manager for John Deere. “This knowledge gives them the ability to store their grain in separate batches according to quality and then market that grain more selectively.”

Site-specific data also helps farmers precisely document the harvest as the grain quality is recorded at each individual point in the field. 

“This level of detail lets them compare varieties or confirm if machines were properly set,” Murray says. “They are also able to see areas of the field that most successfully converted nutrients into yield, protein or oil, so next season’s fertilizer plan can be adjusted.”

Deere says as the combine moves through the field, a motor-driven auger pushes grain in front of the HarvestLab 3000’s near-infrared sensor. The system links the data obtained on the grain quality with the GPS location acquired by a John Deere StarFire receiver.

This site-specific data is then displayed on the Generation 4 Display in the combine cab and can also be sent to the JD Operations Center via JDLink. Farmers can use the Operations Center to review harvest results and field profitability with different Deere tools, which include Analyze and Field Analyzer. Farmers can also pair information in the Operations Center with partner software for additional evaluation or for creating application maps for fertilizer or other inputs.

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