You owe it to yourself to review how well your grain handling system performed this year, especially if you harvested high corn yields. Did handling more grain expose flaws in your system that slowed down harvest?

Gary Woodruff, district sales manager and grain conditioning expert for GSI, provides insight on questions that can help determine how various components of your system performed:

In a year with high yields, what places in the grain handling system are likely to back up first? I think we have concentrated so hard the past few years on storage that the drying and handling equipment have possibly fallen behind, unbalancing some systems. Early equipment interest since the fall has been stronger for those two categories. Storage is still very strong, but the stories told of backups at farm receiving sites almost reminds one of past lines at elevators. The significant increase in grain volume per day is becoming an issue, even with moderate moisture levels. Add that more farmers are realizing the value of starting wetter to maximize yield, and you have more farmers looking at getting the balance back.

How do farmers zero in on which parts of the grain handling system may have slowed them down? What can they do about these things economically? Comments this fall from farms that significantly increased their receiving capacity before harvest about how they reduced the number of trucks and drivers required even with higher grain volumes speaks to their receiving equipment being too slow previously. Adding trucks is a lot more expensive than adequate receiving speed and wet holding. If trucks or the combine are often waiting, it’s time to reassess the receiving facility speed. The need for additional drying capacity usually makes itself apparent if your wet holding wasn’t empty when you were ready to start again the next morning. The first grain in the wet holding is the last out, and that grain will go out of condition.

How do farmers assess whether the dryer could have handled the same yields if corn were four points wetter? If the dryer doesn’t keep up in a moderate-moisture fall like 2020, it will cripple harvest speed in a wet one. Having more wet holding than the dryer can dry each day is only good for a day. Then you only harvest as fast as the dryer can dry again. This year the dryer should have easily handled the grain each day, or you will find yourself waiting for the dryer more often as you grow.

How do farmers tell if a fan bearing or other motor element needs replacing? Good maintenance is a must to prevent this type of failure. Prevention is still the best choice. A preseason check is a must on any mission-critical piece of equipment. Having your dryer dealer’s service people do that check, inspecting and replacing any questionable components before the start of harvest, goes a long way toward a downtime-free harvest. With the relatively short, intensive use dryers see, this practice has proven very effective. There are aftermarket systems that monitor bearing overheating and can react to vibration which can predict an upcoming failure. These have been much more common on commercial installations but are gaining ground on farms.