Fort Dodge Messenger, IA

07-28-07

Experts estimate what could be a bin busting harvest

By DARCY DOUGHTERY MAULSBY, Messsenger staff writer

Iowa may have to play catch-up for a few years to create enough storage space for the amount of grain being produced, thanks to today’s seed genetics and skyrocking demand from the renewable fuels industry.

“The question isn’t whether grain will be stored," said Charles Hurburgh, an agricultural and biosystems engineering professor at Iowa State University. “It’s where and with what quality level the grain will be kept."

“Based on the latest estimates of current storage options and projected yields, Iowa will be 500 million to 750 million bushels short of good-quality grain storage this fall,” said Hurburgh, who defines “good quality" as storage with a solid surface, a cover, uniform air flow, and ease of moving grain in and out.”

While storage is being built as fast as the construction companies can go, it may not be fast enough. “The grain bin companies tell us they are booked for at least two years," Hurburgh said. “Steel has become the limiting factor, since increased global demand has made steel more expensive and harder to get."

Although on-farm storage appears to be going up more often than commercial storage, elevators are adding more bins and improving the efficiency of their grain-handling equipment. Two Rivers Cooperative, for example, is building two new Sukup grain bins at its Monroe location. Each bin will hold 325,000 bushels, and the co-op is also installing a new tower and new leg that can handle 15,000 bushels an hour. The new bins will more than double the grain capacity at this location.

MaxYield Cooperative in northwest Iowa has continued to invest in its grain facilities. “In the past five years we’ve added faster equipment at Dickens, Mallard, Belmond, West Bend and Fostoria," noted Harry Bormann, grain team leader, who noted that the co-op also offers condo grain storage options. “If the 2007 crop yields well, however, you may see more corn piles around the area this fall."

Protect your profit potential

With ethanol driving many of Iowa’s grain storage issues, farmers and elevators are being forced to consider quality more carefully. “Ethanol plants generally don’t discount for quality issues—they reject the grain," Hurburgh said. “You can’t just blend quality problems away."

That means grain has to be in just as good of condition in May and June as it was in October and November. “Grain management isn’t rocket science, but there are some basic principles you must follow," said Hurburgh, who offered the following tips:

• Keep the air flowing. Under no circumstances should you store grain without aeration. If you’re using an old building for extra storage, set steel aeration ductwork down before you fill the structure with grain.

• Keep it covered. Grain should never be stored without a cover. It should also never be piled outside on the farm. “It’s very hard to manage grain quality in small piles, so it’s easy for the grain to go out of condition," Hurburgh said.

• Maintain the proper temperature. Keep the grain temperature within 10 to 15 degrees of the average outside air temperature. This can get tricky in late September and early October, when days can be warm and nights can be cool. “Even if the grain is dry coming in from the field, you can still have quality problems," Hurburgh said. “When there are differences in the grain and outside air, there will be moisture movement, which can lead to condition problems."

• “Keep moisture levels in check. Corn should not be more than 16 percent moisture coming out of the field. Never carry wet grain through the winter,” said Hurburgh, who noted that proper aeration can take corn down to 15 percent moisture for the winter. If you plan to store the grain into March and April, use aeration fans to bring the moisture down to 14 percent.

• Continue to monitor grain quality and temperature. As the months go by, regularly check the temperature of your stored grain. “A temperature change is the key thing to watch for, because changes in temperature indicate condition changes," Hurburgh said. If you notice in early February, for example, that the grain is at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and then goes up to 35 in a few weeks and hits 38 degrees in another couple weeks, determine if it’s a localized hot spot or whether the mass is starting to heat. Turn on the fans to cool the grain, and remove grain that has spoiled.

Plan ahead

As you consider your grain storage needs, look at the big picture. “When farmers upgrade their grain handling system, one of the biggest problems I’ve noticed is that they don’t see beyond the combine," Hurburgh said. “While they invest in a large, new combine, they don’t consider how this will impact their unloading capacity. From the combine to wagons and semi-trucks to grain bins, the whole system has to fit together."

Since the amount you can afford to spend on grain storage often involves trade-offs, Iowa State University is developing a new Excel spreadsheet to help you crunch the numbers and connect grain storage to your marketing plan. When the tool is ready, it will be added to the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative Web site at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/grain/.