Reading Time: < 1 minute As farms have increased in size, their storage requirements now mean far greater quantities of a single crop, whether it be canola or wheat. This means higher capacity, flat-bottomed bins. These are often centrally located, with larger capacity handling equipment and sometimes permanently installed handling equipment.
Farm growth pushes farmers to bring grain handling and conditioning home
Tackling a core problem of grain storage
One retailer says the practice could be helpful for preventing plugs when unloading
Reading Time: 4 minutes Coring grain bins, a common practice in the U.S. corn and soybean area, is also being tried by some Canadian growers as part of their grain storage strategy. Coring involves removing grain from the centre of the bin after the initial fill, which removes the fines that accumulate within the centre during loading. Some say […] Read more
Dust storm, hurricane-force winds tear across U.S. upper Midwest
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Hurricane-force winds tore across the U.S. upper Midwest Thursday evening, sending walls of dust across cities and rural towns, causing widespread property damage and killing at least two people. Straight-line winds up to 170 km/h reached from Kansas to Wisconsin, pushing waves of farmland topsoil across the horizon and plunging communities […] Read more
Options for monitoring grain bins
3D imaging and CO2 detection are offered as options for monitoring temperature and moisture
Reading Time: 4 minutes Bin monitoring has come a long way since probes on sticks and necessarily so — as the size of grain bins has grown, so has the value of their contents. One 10,000-bushel bin can surpass $100,000. Everyone has heard horror stories of entire bins ruined, but Joy Agnew, associate vice-president of applied research for Olds […] Read more
Keeping your stored grain cool and dry
With increased storage depth comes increased risk. Are we moving enough air through today’s larger grain bins?
Reading Time: 5 minutes For anyone visiting the rural Prairies for the first time in a few years, one of the first things they might notice is that those are not their dad’s grain bins — 20,000- to 50,000-bushel bins are now a common sight. But bigger bins mean bigger challenges in managing moisture, and bigger losses if things […] Read more
Grain equipment firm AGI takes stake in Farmobile
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian grain handling and storage equipment maker Ag Growth International plans to dial up its collaboration with ag tech firm Farmobile and has taken a minority stake in the U.S. company to that end. Winnipeg-based AGI announced Tuesday it had agreed to make a “minority equity investment” of US$15 million (C$19.57 million) in Farmobile, effective […] Read more
Steel tariff shrapnel hits U.S. farmers
Reading Time: 5 minutes Kane County, Ill. | Reuters — Lucas Strom, who runs a century-old family farm in rural Illinois, canceled an order to buy a new US$71,000 grain bin last month — after the seller raised the price five per cent in a day. The reason: steel prices jumped right after U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs. […] Read more
It’s been a good few years in the bin business
Crops have been getting larger, but the elevator system has gone in the other direction, forcing farmers to add more of their own storage
Reading Time: 5 minutes Prairie farmers can’t seem to get enough on-farm storage, and the trend is likely to continue but with ever-growing bin sizes. As farms grow, so too do their storage needs, says Lyle Muyres, vice-president, marketing for CORR Grain Systems Statistics Canada’s 2016 Census of Agriculture confirms operations are getting larger, with producers increasing their farm […] Read more
Moisture in or moisture out?
Are you really drying that grain when you turn on the fans?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s the disaster no one wants to admit — a bin of spoiled grain can represent the loss of a producer’s entire year of profits. When grain spoils due to problems with storage, “farmers usually sell it, burn it or hush it up,” says Joy Agnew, project manager for Agricultural Research Services at the Prairie […] Read more
Temperatures climbing? Check the grain bins
Reading Time: 2 minutes As much as warmer weather may have growers in Ontario thinking of spring planting, a provincial ag specialist warns farmers to consider the old crop ahead of any plans for the new crop. Temperatures are moderating and in southern Ontario, they’ve risen well above freezing for the first time in nearly two months. That’s prompted […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
