With only 41% of the corn crop emerged in the top 18 corn producing states, it may seem early to be planning for harvest, but that's what the Propane Education and Research Council (PERC) is doing.

The council encourages growers to talk to their suppliers now and consider filling tanks early to prepare for propane demands in the harvest season.

“For producers who haven’t already filled their tanks, now is a great time to make those arrangements and prepare not only for harvest grain drying needs but winter heating needs as well,” said Mike Newland, director of agriculture business development at PERC. “Because propane does not deteriorate over time, we also recommend looking into additional on-site storage for continuous access to the power needed to keep operations running smoothly throughout the harvest and winter seasons and beyond.”

Related: Propane is No. 1 choice for grain drying

To help producers determine how much propane they'll need, PERC has created a tool to estimate the number of propane gallons needed ahead of each season. Using three data points, this Grain Drying Calculator allows users to estimate the amount of propane an operation will require.

Users of the calculator simply input their average expected yield to determine the number of propane gallons needed to dry their crops by a specific moisture percentage. From there, PERC’s tool will calculate approximately how many gallons of propane will be needed.

Source: Propane Education & Research Council, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.