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Post by kevlar on Dec 2, 2023 1:22:37 GMT -6
Nice to see frosty tops on the non aeration bins.  Still might not hurt to check them. We had a bin of canola start to heat on us the other day, and we had dried it but for some reason the top was testing 11, not sure why, I emptied the bin and the rest was about 9. Good thing I was late doing our harvest report for crop insurance and had to check the level of the bin, looks like about 1000 bushels got heated but not sure to what extent. Got an email from the elevator saying they’ve never seen so much heated canola before. Have heard some guys have had entire bins anywhere from 40 to 90% heated, but that’s second hand so could be off. Our bin that was heating still had snow on it a couple days before I checked it. |
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Post by northernfarmer on Dec 2, 2023 6:04:13 GMT -6
Kevlar, I wonder if the canola was not cured that well ( standing canola ? ) due to weather and that it never had a chance to dry down naturally time wise nor weather wise and why you had to dry it. As far as your drier goes, that's a batch dryer and wondered what temperature you cool it down to and of course that depends on the outside temp but as far as how close to the ambient temp. I just wonder if there was one of or a combination of factors of not quite cured, possibly not quite cooled enough and within the bin it migrated that moisture and warmth up to the top. Does this bin have aeration ?
Obviously its not just you finding an issue, its been a theme around there with heating ( also weather and late crops ) and also one has to wonder about varieties, are there hidden issues with some of them as per genetics causing higher oil content and so forth, just speculating of course but a theory of a more unstable canola if not handled just right as per curing or having the moisture level drier than what one assumes it should be for safe storage.
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gleanerl
Full Member
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Post by gleanerl on Dec 2, 2023 6:56:30 GMT -6
Finally corn moisture dropped to a point where I just said **** it and go. 5 acres left to finish harvest yesterday and hydraulic rad developed a leak. Thought of a work around while "sleeping" last night only to wake up to snow and forecast of up to 25cm by Mondays end. Ugh.
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Post by garyfunk on Dec 2, 2023 8:45:26 GMT -6
Kevlar, what did you find when you looked in the top? I've been relying on the temp cables to monitor for heating. I have looked in the top of a few bins and the grain (canola, barley) that I can reach has been cool and loose on top.
Not fun having canola heat, but we had some heat once and I thought it was a write off, so I took a pic of the crushed sample and sent it to a "heated canola" purchaser and he told me it wasn't bad enough for him, ha.
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Post by kevlar on Dec 2, 2023 8:57:10 GMT -6
Kevlar, I wonder if the canola was not cured that well ( standing canola ? ) due to weather and that it never had a chance to dry down naturally time wise nor weather wise and why you had to dry it. As far as your drier goes, that's a batch dryer and wondered what temperature you cool it down to and of course that depends on the outside temp but as far as how close to the ambient temp. I just wonder if there was one of or a combination of factors of not quite cured, possibly not quite cooled enough and within the bin it migrated that moisture and warmth up to the top. Does this bin have aeration ?
Obviously its not just you finding an issue, its been a theme around there with heating ( also weather and late crops ) and also one has to wonder about varieties, are there hidden issues with some of them as per genetics causing higher oil content and so forth, just speculating of course but a theory of a more unstable canola if not handled just right as per curing or having the moisture level drier than what one assumes it should be for safe storage.
It’s a continuous dryer and cooling is the limiting factor, I can’t remember what the temperature was when we put it in the bin but it wasn’t anything crazy as we had the grain temperature pretty low when drying it. We’re wondering if the top of the bin was the last stuff to come out of the dryer and if you don’t give it a little extra time drying it can come out a little bit tough, just the nature of the dryer. It was the very top that heated, the rest of the bin was cool and not in an air bin. |
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Post by kevlar on Dec 2, 2023 9:04:53 GMT -6
Kevlar, what did you find when you looked in the top? I've been relying on the temp cables to monitor for heating. I have looked in the top of a few bins and the grain (canola, barley) that I can reach has been cool and loose on top. Not fun having canola heat, but we had some heat once and I thought it was a write off, so I took a pic of the crushed sample and sent it to a "heated canola" purchaser and he told me it wasn't bad enough for him, ha. It looked fine, I could smell it is how I noticed it and it felt good. Fortunately there isn’t much damage, I rolled some out and there is maybe 5-6 that are tan in colour, so it’s not the end of the world. Going to check every bin start of the week. This is the first time I’ve ever had canola heat, usually pretty overly cautious with canola and seldom store it for any length of time but with this fall being what it was things got overlooked and not being happy with the prices at harvest ended up keeping it, that sure is paying off well 🙄 Certainly a sick feeling and of course start thinking the worst and ended up spending half of one of the only two full days of deer hunting I have been able to get in emptying the bin, fortunately it was a warm day and things were able to be started right away and didn’t have to be plugged in for a day to start. |
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Post by Oatking on Dec 2, 2023 9:23:38 GMT -6
I am sure you are not alone , just be glad you caught it! Imagine how many bins are smouldering as we speak!
I had this happen in 2004. I had lousy bin space back than and not enough fans for a wet harvest.
It was high erucic acid rapeseed. Instead of 10 dollars a bushel I got 7 something. I was pretty mad at myself for letting that happen !!! I felt embarrassed!
Last year my neighbour had a heck of a time getting his heated canola out of his hopper . He had piles of lumps of white burnt canola on the ground . Terrible situation .
That lessen taught me to invest in better bin space and buy lots of fans! It was a good lesson I learned . It was a 4000 bushel bin . The seed was dry at 8.5 but it had weeds in it. After that I always turn the fan on after a canola bin is filled. It’s amazing to see water drip down the walls even on 8 or 10 percent moisture canola!
Kevlar, your new hoppers are a very good investment. You may need a few more!
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Post by kevlar on Dec 2, 2023 9:41:11 GMT -6
I was driving along the highway the other day and there is a yard with some big bins, 30-40,000 bushels and and a few smaller ones but still a good size and I was sure I could smell something similar to what our canola was smelling like 😬.
Funny how you mentioned it feels embarrassing to have grain heat. After the initial sick feeling, embarrassment was the next thing, not sure why, it can happen to anyone but it makes you feel like a screwup.
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Post by meskie on Dec 2, 2023 9:43:59 GMT -6
2 falls ago we had a bin of canola heat on us. Was only a 2500bu bin with a fan. Had it cooled down and taken a part load out of it as we knew it was tough. We got it moved and cooled down phoned a buyer for heated canola in the spring and he was paying $20/bu. Good canola was $25-$26 then. By the time he came to get it the price of good canola had dropped to around $18. Don’t think we will ever get more for heated canola then spot price for good stuff again. Our don’t want to deal with it in the winter marketing paid off that time.
The bin was by our cattle and we feed silage so we could smell it slightly but thought It was just the silage.
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Post by carlos on Dec 2, 2023 15:11:17 GMT -6
I found some heated as well, can't mistake that smell. I had even pulled a load out last month. Super bee load to Milligans was 22% heated. I hauled just about 10 tonne at 16%.
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Post by kevlar on Dec 4, 2023 19:39:06 GMT -6
Got a couple bins of canola hauled out and another checked and so far so good 👍. Should get the rest of the canola checked tomorrow and get the heated stuff dried and might run it through an extra time to get it cooled right off. Sounds like we might be luckier than most in the area, almost everyone has something heated, and the elevator confirmed that a lot has been 70% and up to 85%, some was 7.5 moisture and still heated but I suspect a tough hopper or two might have gotten dumped in the bin unnoticed. The sample I took in of our heated stuff was 6.5% heated and just started to heat, luckily only about 12-1300 bushels. The elevator sent out an email Friday saying this is the most heated grain they have ever seen.
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Post by victory on Dec 4, 2023 21:43:55 GMT -6
It’s a continuous dryer and cooling is the limiting factor, I can’t remember what the temperature was when we put it in the bin but it wasn’t anything crazy as we had the grain temperature pretty low when drying it. We’re wondering if the top of the bin was the last stuff to come out of the dryer and if you don’t give it a little extra time drying it can come out a little bit tough, just the nature of the dryer. It was the very top that heated, the rest of the bin was cool and not in an air bin. Everyone has a slightly different drying setup, but I am quite confident that cooling grain off well after running it through the dryer is what really "cures" it and makes it safe for storage. If there is still heat left in the kernel from the dryer, that has to somehow "sweat" its way out. If you have air blowing through the grain until it is cooled off to 10C, that grain is not going to spoil. I have put grain into storage as high as 15C, but don't like doing that. I have an older Vertec grain dryer. With our drying setup we use the whole dryer for heating and then put the hot grain from the dryer into 2 cooling bins. Once it is cool it goes into permanent storage. This does require augering it once more, but gives me great peace of mind. I set it up like this to make custom drying very easy. Customers just pick up the grain from the cooling bins. Using the whole dryer for heating also increases the capacity a lot. To show how much effect cooling the hot grain has, a guy just has to crawl to the top of the cooling bins. The air coming out is warm and very humid. The moisture of canola will be 10.5% coming out of the dryer, and 9.5% when it comes out of the cooling bins. Wheat will drop 1.5% moisture and peas and faba beans 2%. The bigger the seed, the bigger the drop. |
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Post by kevlar on Dec 4, 2023 21:56:45 GMT -6
It’s a continuous dryer and cooling is the limiting factor, I can’t remember what the temperature was when we put it in the bin but it wasn’t anything crazy as we had the grain temperature pretty low when drying it. We’re wondering if the top of the bin was the last stuff to come out of the dryer and if you don’t give it a little extra time drying it can come out a little bit tough, just the nature of the dryer. It was the very top that heated, the rest of the bin was cool and not in an air bin. Everyone has a slightly different drying setup, but I am quite confident that cooling grain off well after running it through the dryer is what really "cures" it and makes it safe for storage. If there is still heat left in the kernel from the dryer, that has to somehow "sweat" its way out. If you have air blowing through the grain until it is cooled off to 10C, that grain is not going to spoil. I have put grain into storage as high as 15C, but don't like doing that. I have an older Vertec grain dryer. With our drying setup we use the whole dryer for heating and then put the hot grain from the dryer into 2 cooling bins. Once it is cool it goes into permanent storage. This does require augering it once more, but gives me great peace of mind. I set it up like this to make custom drying very easy. Customers just pick up the grain from the cooling bins. Using the whole dryer for heating also increases the capacity a lot. To show how much effect cooling the hot grain has, a guy just has to crawl to the top of the cooling bins. The air coming out is warm and very humid. The moisture of canola will be 10.5% coming out of the dryer, and 9.5% when it comes out of the cooling bins. Wheat will drop 1.5% moisture and peas and faba beans 2%. The bigger the seed, the bigger the drop. How long roughly does it take to cool off in the bins with air, I know it varies with conditions, but a rough estimate? We’re thinking of adding air to the two bins we dry into and doing the same, should be able to turn the fans on as soon as the ductwork is covered? Or no? Going to add air to some more bins next summer so that will help some as well. |
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Post by victory on Dec 4, 2023 22:09:19 GMT -6
Yes, the fans go on as soon as the ducting is covered. I try to get the bins full by evening an let them blow all night and then move the grain out in the morning. I would say about 12 hours. I had 7.5 hp fans on 2100 bu hopper bottoms. If a guy had a rocket system or something similar, a guy should be able to go with a smaller fan.
I just changed one of my cooling bins to a 19' 3700 bu hopper this fall, but didn't use it much. We had a nice fall!
Another thing that I did was run the unload augers from the 2 cooling bins to the same spot. That way I can mix the grain from the 2 bins in case a guy goofs with the dryer job. (yes that does happen some time lol).
Can also load out quite quickly that way.
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Post by meskie on Dec 4, 2023 22:14:18 GMT -6
We have a fan on our dry bin also. Turn it on as soon as duct is covered. Takes 1-2 points out of the grain pretty easily. We have older vertex and still Use bottom tier for cooling.
Most times by the time the bin is full it’s cool enough to move or we leave it overnight if we shut the dryer down for the night. I agree that it takes the sweat away from the grain by doing it this way. That extra augering into the truck and getting it mixed up some more helps also.
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