Need For Wheat Storage On Farm

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 6

Need For Wheat Storage On Farm

If there wee a larjeacale swing to bulk harvestinc it seemed that a goodly measure of farm storage would have to be coupled with it, said Mr H. E. Garrett, reader in farm management at Lincoln College, who presided at a symposium on bulk handling and storage of grain at the college farmers’ conference last week. He had Just been listening to comments made by Mr R. D. Evans, representing flourmillers.

Mr Evans said that mills, particularly in towns and cities, were limited'geographically in what they could do to provide additional storage and also by building regulations, but above all, he said, the cost of providing silos for bulk wheat, particularly for a mill’s total requirements, was prohibitive. He said that the cost of a silo built in Wellington was £150,000 when still not quite complete, and he would not like to have £300,000 worth of silos lying about idle if farmers at some time in the future swung away from wheat-growing. If all sack storage space in mills was converted to bulk storage, because bulk wheat storage could not be taken as high as sacks, there would be about a 50 to 66 2-3 per cent, loss in storage capacity, which alone would mean that a greater proportion of the crop would have to be held on the farms for varying periods, Mr Evans said. Safe Storage Wheat could also not be stored safely in bulk at mills unless it were of good baking quality and at a safe moisture level. One ‘Per cent, of bug wheat in a grist would be enough to ruin wheat completely for bread-baking. Such wheat wotlld have to be stored on the farm. Mr C. J. Crosbie, the machinery officer in the Department of Agriculture, said that before the recent increase in the maximum storage increment from 9d to Is 6d a bushel, he calculated the total costs of bulk storage on the farm at 8d a bushel, and at that. time he could not see that the storage payment was a very attractive proposition, but at the new figure he said he believed that farmers were getting about 9 per cent, on the deal, and that storage on the farm was now quite an economic proposition.

Questioned about the risk of loss with bulk wheat in store from insect pests, Mr J. M. Kelsey, officer-in-charge of the Lincoln sub-station of the Entomology Division of the D.5.1.R., said that where pestfree wheat went into a clean store the risk would be

practically nil If pest-free grain went into a store that was already infested with insects infection would start immediately, as would also be the case where infested grain went into store. This latter condition was rare.

It was largely a question of hygiene, said Mr Kelsey. Avoidance of pests was fairly simple. Scrupulous cleanliness was required in the store. Removal of all grains from crevices, framing, cracks in concrete and so on should be carried out before the new crop came in. It was in these broken grains that insects and mites built up. With insecticide sprays, dusts and fumigants control was fairly simple. In the average store the cost would be only about 255. Fumigation was a more specialised treatment and should be carried out by experts. “Tt is nice to hear of something being done cheaply,” said Mr Garrett..

Asked how farmers’ stores

became contaminated, Mr Kelsey said that the main danger lay in grass seed, clover, poultry pellets, dog biscuits and stock foods held in store. It would pay farmers to keep poultry and stock food separate from grain. Mr Crosbie said that he was a strong advocate of every farmer having a sampling spear. He looked on a 20-ton bin of wheat not just as a bin of wheat, but £5OO stacked up.

Mr Kelsey said that if farmers inspected their bulk grain with the spear every five weeks the only insects that they would not identify would be mites. As temperatures were reduced, activity of insects was reduced, said Mr Crosbie. The bigger pests stopped breeding when the temperature fell below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Mites would continue until the temperature fell to 40 degrees.

There was no problem with condensation in metal silos provided that the grain went in at a safe moisture level, he said.