Mid-Canterbury Farmers Drying Grass

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30965, 22 January 1966, Page 8

Mid-Canterbury Farmers Drying Grass

There is quite an upsurge of interest in the drying of grass seed in Canterbury this season. When farmers went into bulk handling they showed originality and quite a lot of economy with their makeshift techniques; so today farmers who are drying grass seed are frequently using cheap materials and existing sheds and are doing the operation seemingly effectively, in spite of the absence of elaborate facilities.

The obvious advantage of the technique is that it allows harvesting to proceed much sooner than is normally the case after the cutting of the grass, and this means that loss of seed through rain, hail, or wind is considerably reduced. Mr Frank Ridge and his son, John, who farm 600 acres appropriately called Greenfields, near Methven, gave up trying to save grass seed at one stage after crops had been partially threshed by rain or wind. The annual rainfall in the area is about 40 inches. Big Quantity This week they have been drying some 1400 bushels of seed of Manawa (or short rotation) ryegrass harvested off about 28 acres when the moisture content of the seed was about 28 per cent. Mr John Ridge estimated that about 100 hours of drying would be needed before the seed was brought down to about 14} per cent for safe storage. The seed was harvested about five days after cutting compared with the normal time lag of 10 days.

The Ridges are now in their second season of grass seed drying—they also dried 600 bushels of short rotation ryegrass last year—and they also dried 400 bales of lucerne hay last year. They are now in their fifth season of harvesting in bulk. The Ridges began drying in an old milking shed measuring 20ft by lift. This was given a new concrete floor and a slatted floor 18 inches above the concrete floor level. This floor will carry about 600 bushels of grass seed with scrim on top of the slats. The red fan with its own 18 horsepower motor which supplies about 6000 or 7000 cubic feet of air a minute Mr Frank Ridge said he believed had once done duty for the Post Office at Napier. This season the Ridges have provided further drying space in part of an implement shed. Here in a compartment of 20ft by 14ft there is accommodation for another 800 bushels of seed again on a floor made up of five slatted sections of 2in by lin slats about an inch apart on a framework of 4in by 2in timber with a piece of 4in bySin timber resting on pipe blocks down the middle to give extra strength. This shed has been lined very cheaply indeed with ply-

wood from old tractor packing cases and part' of the upper lining at the front of the shed can be removed to allow the moist air coming out of the seed mass to escape. When there is so much seed on the floor that this section of the lining of the shed must retain intact there is a space at the side of the building through which this air can escape. Here another second-hand fan, it is believed used

■ formerly for an industrial i purpose, was being driven by ’ a 37 horsepower tractor. It is i believed to be capable of ! putting out about twice the i air of the other fan. The > tractor with front-end loader t was ready for easy enclosing f so that the heat developed by t the machines might be trans- • mitted to the seed if need be. i The ryegrass seed was brought in from the harvest I field in a tractor-drawn tip I trailer made from an old

motor tip truck and was being elevated to the roof of the old implement shed by a 32ft long Sin auger which was built by Mr John Ridge himself using no longer than 4ft sections of unrolled metal. Without the motor it cost about £lOO to construct Another 18ft long Bin auger was drawn up alongside the old cow shed.

■ When a portable seed cleaning plant comes to the farm the seed is again

angered out of the drying sheds into the tip trailer and from this is fed into the cleaning plant. Gearing up for drying on the farm is estimated to have cost about £3OO. In November about 400 bales of lucerne hay baled at 35 per cent moisture were dried in a hay barn. The hay was built round a plywood bung or core. It was 4ft square by sft high and the hay was built round it about 15ft by 15ft. There was an eye bolt in the centre of the bung and it was progressively raised with a rope and pulley so that there was a hollow core through the centre of the hay and a channel for the air measuring about 2ft by 18in was left at bottom.

The hay was dried down to 18 per cent and Mr Ridge described it as being of top quality and unbleached by the weather,' vhereas hay made at the same time which did not get into the shed was of only half quality. The Ridges have more than 300 acres of harvest this season —120 acres of wheat, 40 acres of peas, 30 acres of barley, 108 acres of white clover including 30 acres also to be direct-headed for grass seed, and another 28 acres of grass seed. Last season using the sheds and also two 41-ton corrugated iron circular silos the Ridges stored more than 200 tons of wheat until September.