Another Bulk Storage, Drying Unit

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31653, 13 April 1968, Page 9

Another Bulk Storage, Drying Unit

For a cost of about S4OOO Mr A. J. Marshall, of Beach Road, near Ashburton, has built a 1350 sq. ft granary, installed four silos to hold about 176 tons of grain and an electrically driven fan, which will both dry grain and seeds and blow it into the silos.

Mr Marshall farms 240 acres, all but seven acres of which were harvested for either grain or small seeds this season. The remaining seven acres were in lucerne, which was cut for hay three times. Another 45 acres at Tinwald, which are operated for a children’s trust, were also all harvested for barley and cocksfoot seed. A contract was let for the building of the shed. It is 45ft by 30ft with a 15ft 6m stud and 4in by 2in treated

pine framing and is sheathed in long-run corrugated iron. The floor is of concrete with a polythene moisture barrier incorporated. Including the concrete floor, the shed cost $l6BO. Two 33-ton capacity Danishtype Kongskilde wooden silos have been erected inside the shed and this part of the facilities includes a fan of the same make on wheels. The silos, which are 14ft high and of 12ft diameter, are made of slatted timber with inter-

vening slotted aluminium strips and are used as radial driers having a central plenum through which the air is blown into the grain or seed. The silos were built by the farm staff and Mr Marshall says that they were able to do this following supplied instructions without drilling a hole.

The fan, powered by’ a 7} horsepower electric motor, can give a temperature rise of 5 to 9j degrees without a heater, and with an electric heater a temperature rise of more than 20 degrees can be obtained. It is also used to move the grain or seed.

Covered Pit A covered metal-lined vbottomed pit has been built immediately outside the shed and grain or seed is deposited into this pit from a metal vbottomed trailer bin with side delivery auger driven from the power take-off. This bin cost $2BO. A 4in auger delivers the produce to a screwfeed high-speed auger, associated with the fan, and here paddles give impetus to the blowing movement. The speed of movement is governed, of course, by the distance which the material has to be shifted, but Mr Marshall has found that he has been able to shift about seven and a half to eight tons an hour. The grain or seed is blown through a tube that can be swivelled round to feed into any of the four silos. The fan and the two silos cost about $lBOO. Two other silos have also been erected in the shed. They are of vertical corrugated iron construction and each hold in excess of 50 tons of grain and cost $l2O each. This does not include any allowance for labour. There is still space in the shed for another two of these silos, so that the silo storage accommodation could be increased to about 286 tons. In the meantime the space where these silos could go is being used for bag storage.

A seed dressing plant may also eventually be located between the two drying silos. These facilities have been used for the first time this season. Grass seed, barley, and then wheat were handled through the shed. Some 2300 bushels of machine dressed grass seed was harvested this season—just short of 40 bushels to the acre—and most of this was dried through the shed. A start was made to harvest this seed on the third day after cutting, but the weather turned to the north-west, and by the time that the last paddock of ryegress had been reached the seed had to be cooled instead of being dried. Initially this seed was going in at about 20 per cent moisture and it was being dried down to about 14 per cent. But in the last paddock, cut less than three days previously, the seed was being harvested at 103 degrees Fahrenheit and under 121 per cent moisture. At night the fan was used to ! cool it.

A portable seed dressing plant dressed the grass seed out of the silos and cleared

the way for the barley to come in next. Altogether some 60 tons of barley was dried. Some of it came in at slightly more than 19 per cent moisture, and for two successive nights it was dried for 12-hour stretches using the electric heater and brought down to under 14J per cent. The practice at harvest time was to use the fan for heating or cooling at night, and then to use it for shifting grain or seed during the day. Mr Marshall has set the four-inch auger going at 4 a.m., and using the fan also to transfer grain or seed, has had a drying silo ready to accept produce from that day’s harvesting about five hours later, including the time taken to shovel the last bit of material out of the silo—the silos are all set on the flat concrete floor of the shed. A hold-up in the availability of railway trucks meant that at one time three silos were full of barley and harvesting was halted temporarily. The last paddock of barley, because of its lateness, was bagged in the paddock, but of the 5400 bushels of barley harvested some 4643 bushels were handled through the shed. The 70 acres of wheat harvested this year—all Aotea but in one paddock —averaged 80 bushels. None of it required drying. This was an exceptional year, Mr Marshall said, and at this year’s prices and yields the cost of the shed and associated equipment would be paid off in four years, and he expected that it would be covered in a maximum of five years. Electricity Electricity used in the drying and blowing of grain and seeds this season cost $43. This included a guarantee of $3l and then a charge of half a cent per unit used. Some small part of the total cost was Incurred before the start of the harvest. One early innovation that Mr Marshall plans for his shed is some dust extracting equipment as there has been a dust problem, possibly associated with the blowing. A 300 ewe flock and 600 wethers are run in association with the intensive cropping programme on the property. Ewes and lambs are sold all counted in the spring and wether lambs purchased in November for delivery in January are sold as the situation dictates.