Iowa Farmer Today, IA
08-15-07
Sensors monitor grain quality
By Hannah Fletcher, Iowa Farmer Today
At a time when grain storage and quality are increasingly important, new
technology once again has stepped up to help farmers with selling stored grain.
“Agriculture and Iowa agriculture is now a supply chain for the manufacturing
industry — it’s a supply chain for the ethanol industry,” notes Charles Hurburgh,
Iowa State University professor of ag engineering.
“All the manufacturing industries I know want a pretty close control over their
inputs.”
Hurburgh said there is less room for lower-quality grain when the ethanol industry
is a likely market. The leeway farmers once had has diminished due to ethanol
processor requirements.
“Our new market can not tolerate moldy grain because it interferes with the
fermenting process,” he says.
“This is what we have wanted for 25 years — a demand-driven market, a supply
drive. Well, we got what we wanted and all the responsibility that goes with it.”
New grain moisture and temperature sensors suspended by cables in storage
bins can help farmers better manage their grain and handle drying decisions,
Hurburgh says.
Grain sensors are a new development for on-farm storage bins, but they have
been tested in other areas of the industry.
“That is the strategy that has been used in grain elevators for 20 years,”
Hurburgh says.
Todd Sears, president and consultant for IntelliAir from Garden City, Mo.,
explained how the sensor system works. Unlike older systems, these are
designed specifically for on-farm use and have been improved with the use of
digital technology.
A series of cables hanging in bins records temperature and moisture on digital
sensors located every four feet along each cable. The sensors transmit reports to
output centers or the farmer’s personal home computer.
The computer software allows the farmer to control the settings in the storage
bin. Based on the reading, farmers can operate the fans attached to bins, Sears
says.
The fans run on a natural air-drying system. The bin’s weather station determines
if supplemental heat is required. Electric heaters are attached on the fans.
Sears says each system can be set to dry at various settings no matter the grain
type or moisture requirements.
The system’s more-precise readings and natural-air fans save in gas normally
used for inline dryers.
“The No. 1 benefit is the energy savings used to run the fans at optimal time,” he
says.
Other benefits are higher test weights and the ability to capture premiums
through better moisture management.
By doing so, farmers might be able to pay for the system quickly using captured
premiums and money saved in energy use during drying, Sears says.
Also, sensor systems can be beneficial as long-term storage becomes more
important, Sears says.
Hurburgh says farmers planning to store grain long term, need to plan ahead.
“For producers today, I can’t stress enough it is important to make a conscious
decision for storage at harvest,” he says. “No grain should be placed in storage
without good aeration.”
He recommends bins be outfitted with at least one cable-suspended sensor.
“One is not really enough,” he says. “But, one is better than none.”
He recommends placing it just off the center to avoid the center core and the
auger, which draws from the center and could tangle the cable.
Hurburgh says these sensors can be a big benefit because grain bins have
gotten bigger. Checking the moisture of 100,000-bushel bins is not as easy
climbing ladders on smaller bins.
The technology is still rather new for on-farm storage, but Hurburgh suspects it is
offered for most new bins and can be retrofitted to fit existing bins.