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Many people may wonder what grain drying is or why it’s done. Grain drying refers to the removal of moisture by mechanically blowing air through the grain. Many grain dryers in Coffeen use large silos to dry their grain, and there’s plenty of reason why. There are many advantages to grain drying, and some of them might be unexpected. All grain harvested from the field contains water. This water was initially necessary for the plant’s growth, but now it simply poses a risk. The point of grain drying is to remove as much of this moisture as possible for safe storing, processing, and marketing. Keeping the moisture content low helps prevent the spoiling of the grain caused by mold and bacteria. The safe level of moisture depends on grain variety, length of storage, geographical location, and storage structure. The airflow that dries the grain is provided by large fans attached to the grain storage bins. That airflow then blows up through the grain, pulling with it the moisture that could potentially harm the grain in the bin. It’s important to choose the size of fan for your bin in order to correctly lower the level of moisture. In some cases, heat is added to the drying air to assist with the process. Increasing the temperature of the air also increases the level of moisture that the air can pull from the grain. You must use a burner or other heating system to achieve this, so it does increase costs and energy usage. Because the cost of the grain is determined by its end weight, there is a chance that the grain will suffer a small price drop. The less moisture in the grain, the less it weighs. This is counterbalanced by the amount of grain you were able to harvest and sell with the grain drying techniques. This is often considered a necessary cost of growing, harvesting, and selling grain. There is also the risk of over-drying, in which case you waste energy and lose some money. This can be prevented by careful monitoring. As mentioned, grain drying has many benefits. It reduces the crop’s exposure to the weather, which increases its quality dramatically. This also means that you’re not limited to when you can harvest based on the weather. You also limit losses of harvested grain from shattered heads or cracked kernels. It has also been proven that dry grain stored in cooler temperatures will be safe in storage for far longer than grain that is wet or stored in warm temperatures. This means that it’s much easier to package and sell. Finally, you allow yourself more time for post-harvest field work. You do incur some initial costs from purchasing the equipment for grain drying, but that is soon outweighed by the prevented losses and saved time. Checking in with grain dryers in Coffeen can provide more information about the benefits and costs of grain drying. Overall, there are many more advantages than there are disadvantages.
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