Harvesting at High Moisture Levels
The investment in a 7500 tonne grain storage facility by Rimanui Farms at Moree is making returns in more ways than one.
Jim Christie is the cropping manager on a 17000 hectare farm and oversees 8000ha of winter crops and up to 1500ha of summer crops each year. Jim says while the overriding benefit of the Kotzur-constructed facility is financial gain by being able to harvest cereals at higher moisture levels efficiency gains follow closely behind. Jim also highlighted that during the harvest of the 2010 winter crops potential weather damage and quality downgrading was avoided.
“We are already planning to increase it to 16500 tonne of storage,” said Jim of the facility, which was built in 2005 to handle 250 tonne of grain/hour with aeration to all silos and a grain conveyor system for unloading and loading and the movement of grain between silos. Currently the facility can store about half of Rimanui Farms’ annual production and 1000 tonne of seed grain storage.
“For at least six months of the year there are operations taking place daily at the facility – be it loading or unloading, drying grain, testing or blending.”
In 2010 wheat harvest started in mid-October at 15 to 16 per cent moisture. The moist grain was unloaded directly into the drying silos – which have a total capacity of 4000 tonnes – and drying started straight away. In dry weather conditions it usually takes about one week of aeration to bring moisture levels down to 12 per cent, but 2010’s moisture and humidity meant it took three to four weeks.
That early harvested grain reached APH2 receival standard attracting a price of $380/t. Grain which wasn’t harvested before wet weather set in and became feed quality was worth $180. The drying cost was only $10/t while the sale price premium was an extra $200/t!
“I know that’s an extreme example as prices for high quality were exceptional due to the lack of that grain around, but we were able to take advantage of it,” Jim said.
“And that’s only on this farm. I’d hate to think of how much extra money was made in this region by harvesting early and drying the grain – we’d be talking millions.”
For Rimanui the efficiency gains also came by starting harvest earlier – making the job more attractive for contractors – and by harvesting 24 hours a day.
“If we had to wait for the grain to reach 12 per cent moisture each day we would’ve only been able to start at midday and probably would’ve stopped by 11pm,” Jim said.
However, not all the crops were off before weather damage occurred. Chickpeas harvested before the rain averaged two t/ha and were good quality, whereas after the rain yield dropped to one t/ha with mould causing quality issues which resulted in the price dropping from $450/t to $250/t.
“Which again shows the importance of getting grain off before the weather beats you,” Jim said. The drying facilities are also regularly used on summer crops. Sorghum has been harvested at 18 per cent moisture and dried down to 12 per cent and, by adding gas burners to the air intake, corn has been dried from 22 per cent to 12 per cent.
Paramount to the success of the system, according to Jim, is accurate data collection. Rimanui Farms has invested in testing equipment and facilities equivalent to that used by Grain Corp and Jim has undertaken the Grain Trade Australia sampling and receival training.
“Every load that comes into the facility goes on the weighbridge and is sampled and then I decide which silo it’s to go into – usually according to moisture content and quality,” he said.
“Once you know what you are doing it becomes quite simple and this system could be easily replicated for any size operation. The biggest investment is in the grain drying and transfer infrastructure – after that adding extra storage is quite easy.”
For more information please contact Jim Christie at Rimanui Farms
