By Farm Progress staff

When you work around grain bins with grain, two things matter more than anything else. You want to stay safe at all times, and you want to keep grain in condition for as long as you need to store it. Any new products which can help you accomplish one or both of those objectives are worth a closer look.

Brock’s latest grain dryer controller fits into that category. It’s designed to control the grain dryer so it delivers the highest-quality grain possible, dried to the moisture level you determine, and not dried more than you expect. When grain is dried and goes into storage properly, there’s less chance of spoilage issues later. If there is less chance of spoilage, you’re less likely to find a reason to be inside the bin. That should keep you and your employees safer in the long run.

There are other grain dryer controllers on the market. If you can find one that matches up with your dryer and your operation, you increase your odds of putting a high-quality product into the bin and reduce the odds that you will need to be inside the bin working with grain — other than to perform regular, routine checks.

A new company, Steps GMS, offers a lineup of products that should also keep you out of the bin as much as possible. Designed and sold by an industry veteran, company owner Eli Troyer, the new offerings from Steps GMS include a headspace monitor. Many companies sell probes and sensors for monitoring the grain pile, but few emphasize monitoring conditions in the space above the grain pile inside the bin. Troyer says that you can often pick up potential issues with grain in storage before they get out of hand if you monitor what’s happening in the headspace above the grain pile itself very closely. His new offering of equipment makes remote monitoring possible.

The Greene Co. makes galvanized stairs that attach to the sides of bins. How does that improve grain storage quality? Because if it’s easy to access the top of the bin and do it safely, you are more likely to monitor what’s happening in the key area at the top of the grain pile more frequently.

Check out these and all the other product offerings in the slideshow.