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.”

The post Being proactive in storage, handling key to grain safety appeared first on Grainews.

Solar energy produces more than twice as much heat gain on the south wall of a bin in spring as it does during the summer. That, in addition to the solar heat gain on a bin roof, can create an environment conducive to grain spoilage. A 10 F temperature increase reduces the allowable storage time of grain by about half. The storage time of corn at 17 per cent moisture, for one example, is reduced from about 130 days at 50 F (10 C) to about 75 days at 60 F (16 C) and 45 days at 70 F (21 C).

Hellevang recommends periodically running aeration fans during the spring to keep grain below 40 F (4 C) as long as possible during spring and early summer if the grain is dry. In northern states, night air temperatures are normally near or below 40 F in May.

Bin vents can become blocked with frost and ice when the fan is operated at temperatures near or below freezing, which may damage the roof. Leave the fill and access door open as a pressure relief valve when operating the fan at temperatures near or below freezing.

Cover the fan when it is not operating to prevent warm air from blowing into the bin or being drawn into the bin due to a chimney effect and heating the stored grain to temperatures more prone to spoilage and insect infestations. Hellevang also recommends ventilating the top of the bin to remove the solar heat gain that warms the grain. Provide air inlets near the eaves and exhausts near the peak so the top of the bin can ventilate due to warm air rising — similar to what occurs in an attic — or use a roof exhaust fan.

Hellevang advises stored grain should be monitored closely to detect problems early. Grain temperature should be checked every two weeks during the spring and summer. A temperature increase may indicate a storage problem. Grain also should be examined for insect infestations. Check the moisture content of stored grain to determine if it needs to be dried. Remember to verify the moisture content measured by a meter has been adjusted for grain temperature. Also, remember that moisture measurements of grain at temperatures below about 40 F may not be accurate. Verify the accuracy of the measurement by warming the grain sample to room temperature in a sealed plastic bag before measuring the moisture content.

Some in-bin cables estimate grain moisture content by measuring the temperature and air relative humidity and then calculating the grain moisture content based on grain equilibrium moisture content equations. The measured moisture may be one to 1.5 per cent different than the true moisture content, so it is a tool that should be verified with another moisture content measurement method.

Corn needs to be dried to 13-14 per cent moisture for summer storage to prevent spoilage. Soybeans should be dried to 11-12 per cent, wheat to 13 per cent and barley to 12 per cent. The allowable storage time for 13 per cent moisture soybeans is less than 100 days at 70 F.

The post Grain monitoring critical in spring appeared first on Grainews.

Producers can opt for aeration systems, in-bin drying or dedicated grain drying systems. Each of those options has its own capital costs, advantages and disadvantages.

“It comes down to understanding what you’re trying to accomplish and using the right tool for the job,” says Lorne Grieger, director of technical sales at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI).

When grain needs only a small reduction in moisture, aeration bins used without additional heat could do the job. But there is a difference between just keeping grain cool and actually drying it down. A key difference is in the airflow rates.

“Aeration we would define as cooling only,” he explains, “but it doesn’t have the airflow rates that would be effective for drying grain inside a bin.”

When using aeration only for cooling, current airflow recommendations are 0.1 cubic foot per minute (c.f.m.) per bushel. But that jumps to a minimum of 1.0 c.f.m. per bushel for natural air drying systems.

“They are two different ways of doing things, and how you set up equipment is different,” he adds.

To ensure airflow rates are adequate, Grieger cautions that producers need to understand what their fan systems are capable of and how the contents of the bin could affect airflow rates.

“Grain like canola has a lot more back pressure on the fan,” he says. “You may not get the airflow you expect. You may potentially have to limit the amount of grain you have in the bin.”

A pressure gauge on the fan plenum can help in determining actual flow rates.

Ambient air conditions need to be warm and dry to accomplish natural drying without additional heat.

“It depends on what the weather is at the time to what you can accomplish in the grain bin,” Grieger says. “Adding heat allows you to turn a cool damp day into a warm summer day.”

Grieger points to a three-year Alberta study he was associated with that took a look at what was possible with adding heat to in-bin systems.

The study’s intent, he says, was to understand the details of the drying rate for in-bin systems that aren’t dedicated dryers and that apply lower heat to the grain — as well as the capacity of an in-bin system compared to a dedicated dryer. “They are two different ways of doing it and two different options.”

The study looked at the efficiency of adding indirect and direct heat to a bin. Direct heat uses a heater venting burned exhaust gases directly into the bin and out through the grain mass on top. An indirect heater uses a heat exchanger, and exhaust gases don’t go directly into the bin.

The published results of the study found an advantage to the indirect system.

“Although the indirect fired systems have a slightly lower combustion efficiency,” it reads, “the supply air has a lower relative humidity (combustion gases are exhausted) resulting in an overall lower specific energy when compared to direct fired systems. Therefore, the indirect fired systems condition grain more efficiently with shorter run times and have on average 65 per cent of the fuel consumption of direct fired systems.”

Grieger cautions that when using in-bin systems, heating temperatures that are too high can damage grain.

“Because of how they’re configured you want to manage your inlet air temperatures well. And recommendations are 15 to 20 C above ambient temperature before the risk of damage occurs. There are limitations of how much additional heat you want to put into the grain bin mass as a whole as part of that process.”

While in-bin systems provide a relatively low-risk way to dry down tough grain, the risk of spoilage goes up with the increased moisture content of the grain. Anything in the “damp” category would need to go through a dedicated drying system to avoid that problem.

“If your grain is damp you want to use a dedicated dryer system,” he says. “It’s a lower-risk approach to making sure you get the grain dried down before spoilage compared to putting it in a bin. There are limitations on the in-bin systems.”

Dedicated drying systems, with increased control and the ability to monitor results, provide options for speeding up the drying process, allowing for drying at higher rates.

“The advantage of a dedicated drying system is to minimize risk and allow drying to happen on a timely basis, compared to the in-bin system,” Grieger says.

So when growers consider which type of drying system to invest in, it really depends on their anticipated needs. How wet will the grain be when it comes off the combine? That will be a prime consideration.

“It depends on your growing conditions and management strategy,” Grieger says. “If you’re in the damp range, you definitely want to use a dryer system. If you’re tough then you can dry down in bin.”

Also: PAMI guidelines aid in calculating natural air drying effectiveness

The effectiveness of using natural air to dry grain is very dependent on the environmental conditions at the time. Knowing the relative humidity and temperature of the ambient air is key in determining if unheated airflow can help reduce the moisture content in stored grain.

PAMI has published a guide on its website to help growers determine when they would see a benefit from using natural in-bin air drying.

In this example, if the goal is to dry wheat down to 14.4 per cent moisture content, then all the environmental conditions in the red shaded area seen above would help achieve that.

If the relative humidity remains at 60 per cent and the temperature at 10 C, then grain would eventually dry to 13.6 per cent, as shown in the red circle.

PAMI’s website contains several information pages with expanded details on grain drying. They are listed under the “Resource Library” tab.

The post How to choose between an in-bin or dedicated grain drying system appeared first on Grainews.

Anne Kirk, cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, advises aeration and vigilant monitoring of bin moisture and temperature. The latter is particularly important when outside temperatures fluctuate.

“We have definitely heard of some issues with canola having some heating in the bin and some higher moisture zones,” Kirk says. “That’s something that farmers definitely need to be on the lookout for.”

Alberta is also experiencing higher spoilage risk, Neil Blue, a provincial government crops market analyst, wrote in a recent release.

“Several cases of spoiling crops have showed up lately, leading to marketing difficulty and large price discounts,” he says.

In contrast, Kim Stonehouse, crops extension specialist with the Saskatchewan agriculture ministry, reports storage conditions have been “fairly normal” in her province this year.

The science of spoilage

Spoilage in bins is usually caused by moisture migration.

“In the fall and winter, grain in the bin cools because it’s colder on the edges,” Kirk says. That cool air on the periphery of the grain then starts to settle.

“As it moves towards the floor of the bin and into the centre, (the air) becomes warmer because the grain on the inside of the bin is warmer, and then that warmer air becomes lighter.”

That warm air then reverses, rising in the centre of the bin before cooling again when it reaches cold grain near the surface.

“What results is an increase in moisture content near the surface, which can cause rapid grain spoilage.”

Grain and oilseeds will respire for a month or more after storage, Blue notes.

“This respiration can release moisture, which in turn can lead to spoilage. Dense crops like canola are particularly subject to storage problems, although all crops with moisture can spoil.”

Producers’ best bet is to aerate binned crops during the respiration period.

Deep winter seesaw

The basic moisture migration process and its management are the same even when it’s -40 C, Blue says, but the cold snap may have caused more migration.

“The colder January temperatures would further cool the outside portions of the stored crop, possibly leading to more moisture migration from the bottom-middle up towards the top, where that moisture would meet cold crop, possibly causing condensation there.”

Kirk also notes any sudden shift from springlike temperatures to bone-chilling cold should warrant a bin check.

“Do you have a high moisture zone? Is your grain kind of crusty on top, which indicates higher moisture? What temperatures are you going to add?”

Cycling grain or canola can equalize temperatures in the bin, she says.

“Especially for something like canola, take a load or part of a load out of a variety of canola bins to just check it and then cycle it through so you are mixing it up a bit and not creating those really high moisture results in the bin.”

Blue also recommends turning the crop by removing some from each bin, letting it sit on a truck for a day or two and then returning it to the bin. It’s better to do this during cold weather — but springtime may require another bin turning.

“If continued safe storage is questionable, it may be advisable to turn the grain again in the spring as the stored grain warms, or use the fan if the bin is equipped,” Blue says, adding that consistent monitoring is key.

“Many producers use in-bin monitoring systems to detect potential storage trouble. While lower than last crop year’s prices, crop prices are still historically high and worth protecting in storage.”

Monitoring can be also be done with a grain probe, Kirk says, although she cautions producers to be thorough.

“We like to recommend probing all sides and the centre of the bin,” she says.

Stonehouse agrees that monitoring grain temperatures and quickly addressing any issues is always a good practice. Even grain that is not at a safe storage moisture content can have a long shelf-life as long as temperatures stay below 5 C, she noted. Beyond that, problems occur.

“If there is spoilage happening, it is possible that the grain did not cool to below 0 C after harvest due to the unusually warm weather we had,” she says.

Moisture targets

Although 10 per cent moisture — the dry moisture standard for canola — is usually sufficient for marketing, its actual moisture in the bin should be lower, Blue says.

“Safe, longer-term storage moisture levels are below eight per cent. If it is binned at high temperatures, canola can even spoil at six per cent moisture,” he notes.

The Canadian Grain Commission outlines moisture standards for many grains. Buyer expectations also play a role.

“Certain markets or contracts may have different moisture level specifications than (the commission’s). For example, feed barley sold to a domestic feed user is commonly considered to be dry at 15 per cent moisture or less,” Blue says.

Kirk also recommends using CGC resources.

“They have a lot of graphs on their website where you can plot out your initial moisture content of your grain and the temperature of the grain going in the bin.”

The post Avoid grain spoilage when temperatures get wild appeared first on Grainews.

Not long before heading (further) west, Dr. Jayas conducted a study using the famous Canadian Light Source synchrotron at the University of Saskatchewan to look for some very, very, very subtle differences between varieties of durum.

The Light Source has been used before to look at different wheats for fusarium resistance, and for how they change under fungal damage — but this study is meant to show which varieties of durum are more likely to take a hit in nutritional value due to spoilage in storage over time. As you can imagine, variations in wheat protein would be a big deal for durum end-users.

With the Light Source, the study looked at CDC Defy, AAC Stronghold and AAC Spitfire for changes in nutritional distributions, at the micron scale, following storage at “unsafe” moisture levels. It found Defy and Spitfire showed more deterioration than Stronghold. It also found all three varieties could be characterized based on how their nutrient content and distribution varied with spoilage and with time in storage.

Of course, it’s not like this was a contest. It was meant to show how the wheat seeds’ nutritional contents would behave — and where in the seeds they would change — under spoilage pressure in storage. And the researchers were working with the hypothesis that the durums would also behave differently by variety, which they did.

Dr. Jayas and the Light Source researchers also said this type of data could be helpful when making storage decisions — and the methodology of the study itself could also be helpful in looking at other Canadian wheat classes during storage. And this sort of information may also be useful to plant breeders in developing spoilage-resistant varieties that hold onto their nutritional content longer. — D.B.

The post Shedding new light on spoiling crops appeared first on Grainews.

One area you can influence is the original condition of the canola seed going into your bins. Swathing at the correct stage or straight-cutting will help minimize many of the quality and spoilage issues that can stem from high moisture or green seed making it into your bins.

Keep in mind that it can take between four to six weeks for freshly-harvested canola to go into its dormant, “shut-down” state in storage.

If there isn’t an opportunity to deliver your harvested canola crop directly off the combine, it’s critical that any canola you put in bins has aeration on it to cool and force potential moisture pockets out of the bin.

Start with aeration fans as soon as the canola covers the floor of your bin, so that you can start cooling seed immediately. Keep the fans running until the canola seed temperature is close to the average outside temperature.

Pockets of moisture, higher than average green seed content or weedy material in your bins can heat up, resulting in serious damage that spoils stored seed and leads to serious economic losses. Monitor your bins closely during the first six weeks starting after harvest, up until seed delivery.

Also, be sure to keep an eye on temperature and moisture levels, maintain good airflow and move the canola seed around to minimize bin losses.

Doug Moisey is an agronomist with Corteva Agriscience, an agriculture division of DowDuPont.

The post On-farm storage and canola grain quality appeared first on Grainews.

Have you ever been sitting at home wondering what’s going on with the moisture content inside your grain bin? Well, wonder no more. Using spectral imaging technology – similar to that of an MRI or CT scan – GrainViz creates a 3D moisture map of the grain inside your bin that you can view via your computer.

By attaching a series of antennae inside a grain bin in conjunction with an outdoor weather station, the GrainViz system aims to help you spot spoilage before it occurs. Braden Pierce, engineer with GrainViz, explains more in the video above.

This article first appeared on the Manitoba Co-operator.

The post VIDEO: A 3D view of the grain inside your bin to help prevent spoilage appeared first on Grainews.

The research project at the University of Manitoba uses electromagnetic imaging (EMI) to create a 3D profile of a bin, showing pockets of moisture which can overheat and spoil.

The system is the latest development for monitoring storage bins to detect potential spoiled grain, with the goal of helping farmers deal with the perennial problem of post-harvest spoilage losses, estimated to cost more than a billion dollars a year in Canada.

Developers call the 3D EMI system a step up from the current system of temperature-monitoring cables which measure heat levels at different locations inside grain bins.

Paul Card, CEO of 151 Research Inc., says the difference is that EMI is proactive. Sensor cables tell you when there’s a problem in the bin, but EMI tells you before the problem starts.

“Unlike a cable system, we’re detecting the pre-conditions to problems,” says Card, whose firm is partnering with the U of M in the project. “We can give an alert that we’re seeing something that may or may not turn into a problem, and we can give a rough probability of where we think this is going to happen and if something is going to happen or not, unlike a cable system where you’re already in trouble when you receive a detection.”

Card is working with Jitendra Paliwal and Joe LoVetri, U of M professors in the departments of biosystems and electrical and computer engineering.

The idea originated with a 3D microwave imaging system to detect cancer in human breast tissue, developed by LoVetri and his students. It works similarly to a CT scanner but at a much lower frequency.

Paliwal and LoVetri saw an opportunity for grain imaging, but knew it would have to be adapted because a grain bin is obviously very different from a human breast. PhD student Mohammed Asefi adapted the technology to grain imaging.

Generating a 3D image

The team began experimenting by placing small amounts of spoiled grain together with healthy grain in an 80-tonne bin in the U of M’s grain storage research laboratory and checked if the technology could find them. Early results proved encouraging, so they continued testing.

Card explains that 24 antennae, acting as receivers and transmitters, are distributed around the inside walls of the bin. A sine wave (tone) is broadcast on one transceiver and received on the others to develop a 3D profile of the bin and its contents. Because grain’s ability to transmit electromagnetic radiation (called its dielectric property) depends on its moisture, it can be used to generate a moisture map like a 3D scan, much like a CT scan to detect tumours.

The information can then be relayed to a computer or cellphone so the producer can read the results without even having to go to the bin.

Card says the main advantage of the EMI system is that it gives a complete picture of what’s happening inside the bin. Sensor cables will indicate a rise in temperature but they won’t say if a hot spot is the size of a golf ball next to the sensor or the size of a beach ball four feet away. EMI pinpoints both the problem and its magnitude, so producers know exactly what they’re dealing with and where.

Another advantage is that the system can indicate exactly how much grain is in the bin. An unexpected drop in volume signals the possibility of grain theft.

Paliwal says there were some problems to overcome. One was the need to redesign the antennae to keep them from breaking during filling and unloading. LoVetri’s lab redesigned the antennae to withstand the forces caused by loading and unloading while still retaining the necessary electrical characteristics.

Paliwal sees a bright future for EMI in monitoring grain bins, especially as bins get larger and hold grain for much longer.

“When bins were smaller, it was easier to sample them,” Paliwal says. “You just opened the door and stuck your head in. But you can’t do that any more. That’s why monitoring grain has become extremely important. It cannot be done manually as we did in the past.”

The use of 3D imaging may not be restricted to farms either. Paliwal suggests the technology could also apply to railcars and ocean vessels — anywhere grain is moved in bulk and where maintaining quality is critical.

Prototype testing this fall

The project is in its final stages of development. Paliwal and Card expect to install up to a dozen prototypes in bins near Winnipeg this fall. A commercialized product is scheduled for release in time for the 2018 growing season. The cost will vary with the size of the bin, but Card and Paliwal expect their system will be competitive with cable monitors.

While acknowledging that the new technology isn’t cheap, Card says the cost has to be weighed against the value of the crop in the bin.

“If you spoil one bin, that would pay for instrumenting all your bins.”

Many steel bins exceed 20,000 bushels these days and the street price of canola earlier this year was above $11 a bushel — do the math and you get Card’s point.

There’s another advantage to the system which often gets missed. That’s farm safety. Time was when you had to enter a grain bin to check the condition of the contents. People have been known to get trapped in the grain and either suffocated or crushed. The 3D system avoids that danger because you do not have to enter the bin to check the condition of the grain. The system tells you remotely if grain is at risk.

Managing grain so it does not go out of condition is the best way to avoid accidents such as grain entrapment, says Glen Blahey, agricultural safety and health specialist with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association.

“Out-of-condition grain is one of the predominant reasons why people go into the bin,” says Blahey. “If, during the unloading process, someone goes in to deal with a clog, bridged grain or grain stuck to the side wall, the grain can collapse, engulf them and fatalities have been known to occur.”

This article originally appeared on Country Guide.

The post Detecting grain spoilage in the bin before it starts appeared first on Grainews.

“Wheat needs to be managed in storage or you risk a huge loss of revenue,” said Dr. Joy Agnew, Project Manager — Agricultural Research Services with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI).

“That’s something farmers often overlook,” said Dr. Agnew. “We need to remember the management that went into growing the wheat and getting it to the bin in the first place, and give it that same attention when we get it there.”

The two main challenges in that regard are spoilage due to improper storage and infestations of insects and molds.

Often a producer will put the wheat in the bin cool and dry and think they can just leave it; but things can change.

The heat is on

“Convection currents cause moisture migration and hot spots can form. Even though monitoring technologies have come a long way over the last three decades, there’s still room for improvement.”

At present, that technology is limited to in-grain sensors hung from the bin roof before it’s loaded. The problem is that even with multiple sensors, you can only monitor a small portion of the bin.

Based on Dr. Agnew’s calculations, using the recommended number of sensors covers a mere one per cent of the contents. If hot spots form or other problems develop more than a foot or two from the sensors, “you won’t know you have a problem until it’s too late”.

So how do you avoid those problems in the first place?

“The difference between drying wheat and just cooling it is air flow rate; you must understand the distinction. Adequate air flow rate is critical to the drying process so you need a large enough fan capacity to achieve that.”

If the fan is selected and sized strictly for aeration, it’s unlikely to offer effective drying as it won’t push enough air through the grain to dry it.

Putting pests to rest

Ironically, the smallest enemy can be the biggest threat to proper wheat storage.

“The number one culprit is the rusty grain beetle and for good reason: it’s an extremely cold tolerant pest,” said Brent Elliott, CGC program officer — infestation control and sanitation, industry services.

Whereas temperatures in the 0 to -10 C range will kill most insects, the rusty grain beetle survives quite happily for a week or more at -20 C. This is an instance where aeration can save the day.

“Generally aeration is the first response as excessive cold can kill. In the winter pesticides are fairly ineffective so if you have a bin without aeration, moving the wheat out of the bin in cold weather and letting it cool in the truck for a while is helpful too.”

Though less tolerant of the cold, the red flower beetle and rice weevil both feed on wheat, so regular monitoring is once again your best ally.

“Especially in the summer, farmers can be so busy that they leave wheat in the bins too long or fail to check it regularly. Unfortunately, grain heats up no matter what you do and most beetles are able fliers; they can hang around all summer and even survive in empty bins if a bit of wheat residue is present.”

To avert disaster, the CGC recommends checking stored grain every two weeks by taking temperatures and looking for insects. As someone formerly active in field agriculture, Elliott knows how busy it can get.

“It may be more realistic to check bins once a month and even that can be tough, but it’s well worth the time.”

Often it’s a combination of factors that impact grain storage. As with child rearing, if you can catch problems early on, they’re a lot easier to manage.

The post Grain in the bin still needs your attention appeared first on Grainews.