On-Farm Grain Storage Fumigation Workshop

Doug Johnson, Extension Entomologist

The University of Kentucky Grain Science Working group will be offering a Grain Storage Fumigation Workshop on Tuesday May 13, 2014 from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM CDT, at the UK-REC in Princeton, KY. This workshop follows the Annual Wheat Field Day that will be held at the center from 8:00 AM to noon the same day. These two programs are complementary, developed by the same working group, but are separate events. Additionally, the Fumigation Workshop will cover all grain crops. Each event will have its own registration and have requested separate pesticide continuing education units (CEU’s).

Stalk Strength and a Longer Drydown for Corn

Chad Lee, Extension Agronomist, University of Kentucky

My colleague, Bob Nielsen at Purdue, wrote an excellent article on corn yield potential at later growth stages. The quick points from Bob's article are: corn in the dough stage is at 50% of its yield potential. When every kernel is dented, corn is at 60% of its yield potential. Corn at half milkline is at about 88% yield potential. As we have gotten drier in some areas of Kentucky, our corn that is not at blacklayer is losing yield potential. But, we started out at very good yield potential, so overall yields should be very strong.

Drying the 2011 Corn and Soybean Crops

Sam McNeill, Extension Agricultural Engineer, University of Kentucky

Wet weather this spring delayed corn and soybean planting in many areas and consequently pushed harvest later this summer.  Good drying conditions normally occur in September and October and will reduce operating costs for all drying systems.  Moreover, high temperature automatic batch and continuous flow dryers can be used to partially dry corn to 16 or 17 % moisture and unheated, natural air drying can be used to finish drying to the market level (normally 15.0%).  Drying limits for corn and soybeans are shown in Table 1 and 2, respectively.  These are the moisture levels each grain will reach after sufficient exposure to the air conditions shown.

Grain Storage and Drying Calculators

A lot of the grain harvested this fall was wet. Immediate sale of this grain resulted in dockage at the elevator. On-farm storage and artificial drying of the grain also has costs. Now that farmers have most of their grain out of the field, they can pay closer attention to how much on-farm storage is costing compared with the expected dockages at the elevators.

An excellent website on Grain Storage was has several calculators to help producers estimate the costs of drying grain, grain shrinkage, grain bin capacity, and related topics. Dr. Sam McNeill, Extension Agricultural Engineer, was the author of most of these calculators.

A related website for Proper Grain Storage and Handling includes additional relevant topics.