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Post by victory on Aug 30, 2023 20:12:39 GMT -6
I quit growing barley 6 years ago because of the vomi. Since it’s wet up your way is that a concern for you! No pig barn would touch 2% . I had some at 8%. Seed ex took it gradually over the year. It was one hell of a pain in the ……! Wheat same thing although last 4 years it’s been a mute problem. I remember back in the 90s guys burnt 40 bushel per acre wheat swaths because the disease was so bad . These reasons made me a strictly oat farmer with a few canola and bean acres! That goes for canary seed and millet! I have seen thick swaths of those crops burnt up on purpose !!!! Interesting how our experiences shape us! Generally not. We worry more about fusarium in the wheat. |
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Post by Oatking on Aug 31, 2023 8:08:54 GMT -6
  this is a good gauge on how my oat harvest compared to the last two seasons!!! last year I wore off my soles on my sneakers trucking !! Lol This year my sketchers are in great shape!!!! Arggggg! |
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Post by garyfunk on Sept 2, 2023 6:40:27 GMT -6
Nice to see it quiet on here. Means stuff's getting done.😁
Finished knocking down the canola yesterday and working on swathing barley now. Had a morning thunder shower Thursday that put a halt to combining for a few days ... the smoke isn't helping dry things either.
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Post by kevlar on Sept 2, 2023 8:30:07 GMT -6
I’m going to try Trudeau’s zero carbon emissions today. Drying grain yesterday and with the lowest psi I could go without the flame going out, it was bringing barley down from 18% to mid 12, problem was that I couldn’t get the discharge grain temperature low enough so it would shut down. So today when it’s hot I’m going to try running without any heat, supposed to be in the 30’s today, 35 by some forecast. Trudeau would be so proud of me 🤗
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Post by Oatking on Sept 2, 2023 12:03:12 GMT -6
soybeans are soon ready , i might give them a test tomorrow. looks like after a few showers this week sept looks nice. no frost in the forecast in these parts at least.
i am amazed how you northern guys depend so much on a dryer!
i would love to HAVE ONE but in 25 plus years of farming on my own , i have only needed crop dried three times and it was only a few thousand bushels. i cant see myself growing corn or sunflowers so its hard to justify a dryer .
its a great asset to own and i am still on the hunt for at least a new batch dryer with propane. i think a fancy continueous dryer is out of the question. that money is slated for my winter skiing get away condo in Canmore!!!
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Post by meskie on Sept 2, 2023 12:59:11 GMT -6
We are on our last 350 acres of barley. Then we might have a few days break waiting for canola to be ready. We swathed some just over a week ago.
If we had a better dryer setup it would get used way more. It’s in the planning stages right now.
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Post by kevlar on Sept 2, 2023 13:22:34 GMT -6
We should be about 1/4 done today if all goes well. I think right into the oats next and it looks like the wheat should be right after that.
I don’t know how people in my area can get by without a dryer, I can’t remember the last year we never used it. It’s so cheap to run this time of year, it pays back faster than a grain bin does. Ours is old but works well, seldom misses a day of work because of breakdowns.
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radar
Junior Member
Posts: 67
Likes: 36
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Post by radar on Sept 3, 2023 8:47:04 GMT -6
soybeans are soon ready , i might give them a test tomorrow. looks like after a few showers this week sept looks nice. no frost in the forecast in these parts at least. i am amazed how you northern guys depend so much on a dryer! i would love to HAVE ONE but in 25 plus years of farming on my own , i have only needed crop dried three times and it was only a few thousand bushels. i cant see myself growing corn or sunflowers so its hard to justify a dryer . its a great asset to own and i am still on the hunt for at least a new batch dryer with propane. i think a fancy continueous dryer is out of the question. that money is slated for my winter skiing get away condo in Canmore!!! We've had a 5500 vertex for 30 years every time we use it it more then pays for it 's self ....A little slow at times but figured out how to dry canola at 190 F has made a huge difference... Maybe look up Big White ski hill, season pass is 899$ last year, great hill for feb thur march, for us 1hour 15min flight and were there.. |
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Post by northernfarmer on Sept 3, 2023 9:27:55 GMT -6
Radar, what if anything have you done to your dryer to prevent chaff on the door end in the ducts from lighting up on fire as that seems to be the sore spot that I've seen, chaff builds up on both ends but that end probably worse and be it a spark from chaff coming around through the burner or just self combusting, fires sure can happen in canola and without a doubt chaff is not your friend in a dryer !.
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Post by meskie on Sept 3, 2023 22:21:24 GMT -6
Finished up the barley tonight so now it’s just canola left. Not sure is it’s ready yet. Might give it a few days and get some other things done.
Our grain cart driver has to go back to school on Tuesday so I’m glad we got all the cereals done before that. He is planning to miss a few days to help out.
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radar
Junior Member
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Post by radar on Sept 4, 2023 9:30:05 GMT -6
Radar, what if anything have you done to your dryer to prevent chaff on the door end in the ducts from lighting up on fire as that seems to be the sore spot that I've seen, chaff builds up on both ends but that end probably worse and be it a spark from chaff coming around through the burner or just self combusting, fires sure can happen in canola and without a doubt chaff is not your friend in a dryer !. Good day Northernfarmer, Thinking of drying Canola in years past, our wet bins are 4000 bushels and I try to empty the dryer out after each bin , sometimes I'll top up as I dry , But to be honest I really don't go inside the dryer to clean out any chaff , last time was years ago when we had a smoke show and crawled in and up to check if there was hot canola..Our chaff builds up in the wet bins and the canola can start to stick and heat quickly, Not much chaff in our dryer, we combine with probably higher wind then most, we use harvest service chaffers and bottom sieves..One thing I have found with the dryer is I changed the orfice to a smaller one and when I start up then dryer I take both the pressure and the temp up slowly and have the meter rolls running ,, probably takes 10-15 mins to get it up to 190 degrees, our smoke shows used to start as we were firing up , not so much as we are running,,I like to not stop the dryer till the bin is done ,It's a long enough day..I bought 2 extra triers for the dryer but haven't had the chance to get them on yet. Hope some of these thoughts help you out.. |
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Post by northernfarmer on Sept 4, 2023 15:15:05 GMT -6
Radar, what if anything have you done to your dryer to prevent chaff on the door end in the ducts from lighting up on fire as that seems to be the sore spot that I've seen, chaff builds up on both ends but that end probably worse and be it a spark from chaff coming around through the burner or just self combusting, fires sure can happen in canola and without a doubt chaff is not your friend in a dryer !. Good day Northernfarmer, Thinking of drying Canola in years past, our wet bins are 4000 bushels and I try to empty the dryer out after each bin , sometimes I'll top up as I dry , But to be honest I really don't go inside the dryer to clean out any chaff , last time was years ago when we had a smoke show and crawled in and up to check if there was hot canola..Our chaff builds up in the wet bins and the canola can start to stick and heat quickly, Not much chaff in our dryer, we combine with probably higher wind then most, we use harvest service chaffers and bottom sieves..One thing I have found with the dryer is I changed the orfice to a smaller one and when I start up then dryer I take both the pressure and the temp up slowly and have the meter rolls running ,, probably takes 10-15 mins to get it up to 190 degrees, our smoke shows used to start as we were firing up , not so much as we are running,,I like to not stop the dryer till the bin is done ,It's a long enough day..I bought 2 extra triers for the dryer but haven't had the chance to get them on yet. Hope some of these thoughts help you out..
First off I have to clarify my wording as my explanation was too vague as I see now. So when I said ducting I should have said the actual column of grain on either side of the central air plenum. So for example when drying canola and one reaches into the triangle openings on the outside of the dryer as its operating ( never reaching into the very bottom row of openings any distance ... that meter roll is down there turning ! ) and feeling the canola in this case for whats going on with temperature as one example or chaff pockets. So back to my comment about chaff building up more so on the door end of the drier, I mean within the column of canola as it hits the door end wall and I assume that happens partly because the top leveling auger is dragging canola to the door end and the chaff tends to float on top and more of it ends up all in a heap against that end wall of those grain columns. Also its been commented in the past that in theory anyway that if chaff floating in the air gets sucked into the fan, that ( depending on the burner type so the claim is ) can get lit up and the "tendency" is for the chaff within the center plenum will fly to the door end and then into the grain through the internal triangle ducts.
That brings me to your technique of emptying out the dryer, that right there empties out all that chaff that accumulates in those pockets of high chaff volume and yes Vertec even says empty out the dryer. Do I, I don't want to because of the crappy setup we have its a whole time consuming operation to start all over again and take back undried canola that ran through the dryer as it can't dry the first few hundred bushels as its sitting in the cooling tiers or would come out way too hot if one started it off as a batch dryer to have the whole dryer be drying. I don't have a way of bringing the product back into the dryer to circulate other then emptying out the "dry bin" when the canola comes close to dry and then back into the wet bin again. Grain elevators would never do something like this as they would never get anywhere production wise so I assume their dryers don't build up chaff like these vertec units do.
I have had the beginnings of a smouldering fire start a couple of times with canola and luckily caught it as per white coming out and stinking, shut it down and started digging with gloves on and found a hot ball on the door end of the grain column. Of course I never knew how it got started, was it from chaff going through the burner or did the built up chaff just self combust. I know long ago there were kits to get triangle shaped screens to stick into the plenum side holes as that was supposed to help with holding back chaff from the fan that was lit up getting into the drying wall of grain, no idea if it actually worked. I can see with a raging flame off the start that is trying to get the plenum up to temp, depending on the burner style as well that could have some radical things happening as you found fires then were the worst upon initial startup. I also agree with chaff building up in the wet bin if emptying down partly, then filling and back and forth like that with never truly emptying out the bin, that and never emptying the dryer cause chaff issues ( aside from the grain in the bin starting to heat ).
As to the actual air plenum and chaff and grain that gets into it, it seem that filling the dryer I feel is the largest issue as to bouncing grain as it falls down the internal grain wall ducting and will bounce into the air plenum. I close off all the air slides I can and run the fan at a part speed when doing the initial fill of the dryer to try and limit the amount of grain the finds its way inside but seems impossible to not have a little bit get in and its a lovely job crawling through the cooling layers and sweeping or vacuuming out the crap at the end of a season. I try to use the dryer as little as possible and the more years I don't have to fire it up at all the better ( again a horrible setup with extreme labour to get anything dried and put into bins where it will be stored )
A couple of friends have added onto their dryers and really increased the capacity although I am not sure if they added any more cooling tiers or not. One of them built a wooden structured roof that sat up above the dryer and a few years ago it lit up on fire, not sure how that happened but it did and the fire department got that out and lots of water ended up in the top of the dryer in the process right into the canola, I don't think that was a lot of fun dealing with the product after that. The top drag auger drooped like a wet noodle I believe, it got that hot and damaged the top rim of the dryer and had to buy a used one as parts to fix it up. He then built a new roof with all metal construction so that wouldn't happen again.
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Post by iamwill on Sept 4, 2023 20:37:22 GMT -6
Harvest here has been slow. Tired of the smoke. Tried the beans again today and almost made a pass before blowing the rotor belt. Should have known better but... the neighbors were smarter they went a couple hundred feet shut it down. Canola should be ready to spray by the start of next week and the corn is coming along but the smoke is sure slowing everything down.
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Post by hardrockacres on Sept 5, 2023 7:00:58 GMT -6
Finished all the wheat yesterday. 300 acres of oats is all the cereals we have left, then all canola. Will try them today but figure the straw is too green yet. Have couple 1/4's of canola that have been down for over 2 weeks that might be ready so may go to that if the oats are not fit.
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Post by Oatking on Sept 5, 2023 7:19:29 GMT -6
Finally a rain occurrence !!!! This is the first time thunder and rain on my roof has woke me up in the middle of the night all year !!!
It was so dry in the fields my semi snd tandem trailers didn’t even make a mark on the ground!
Hard as cement !
After the beans I will do some spraying , ditching and heavy harrowing and a bit a stubble burning but will likely park any thing with a shovel or a disc !!!
Would be nice now to start replenishing our subsoil moisture instead of relying on snow melt .
Next year might be pretty dry if we have to rely on the thunder storm lottery!
How is it on the western side of Saskatchewan like by rosetown snd swift current ?
My impression of dry is different than western Sask farmers Maybe it’s comparable to the mid 80s excluding of course 88.
Lots of guys who were complaining about super dryness around my home town are pulling off 35 bushel canola. That is not too bad I would say!
Lowest canola yield I have heard of so far is 25!
In a lot of cases canola is out yielding wheat and oats!!! That is unheard of .
I had a quarter of canola yield 60 and my worst quarter of oats yielded 60 only 2 miles apart!!!
That result has me still shaking my head!
The guy who baled that field didn’t even bother stacking a pile on that quarter!! Oh…. Man.
Then there is the 100 bushel yield difference in oat fields !!! Has anybody had a 100 bushel swing in yield before……?
Unbelievable .
I hope things are going well for the rest out there! It’s not for the faint of heart !!!
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