Grain Drying Becoming More Important With Later Harvest Trends

fter a wet harvest, many farmers took in the grain drying session at the Farm Forum Event held earlier this month in Calgary.

Joy Agnew with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute taught the room full of farmers, and says their recent trials found airflow rate may be more important than temperature increase.

"Also the benefit of adding heat depends on ambient conditions. I didn't realize how important that was going to be until we saw very distinct results depending on what kind of conditions we had. We had bad conditions in September, so adding heat had a big benefit, and in October, not so much, and so there really is kind of a break-even point where adding heat makes sense."

She reminds farmers when using supplemental heat, more heat is not necessarily better, with the key being to match the temperature increase with the airflow rate.

Agnew says, the last ten years of Alberta crop reports show harvest is moving later in the season, and if this trend holds true, farmers need to know their grain drying options.