The Rural Voice, 1980-12, Page 31Using lower
temperature
saves energy
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
One young farmer who has been
innovative as far as energy costs are
concerned is Dave Brock of R.R. 2, Staffa.
His energy saver is a low temperature
corn drying set-up.
He has around 400 acres of corn• 75
acres of soybeans, 35 acres of white
beans and finishes hogs.
Usually corn is dried in a high
temperature dryer at 220 degrees
Fahrenheit. The harvest moisture which,
depending on the year, runs around 25 to
30 per cent, is reduced through rapid
high heating and then very rapid cooling
to 14 or 141/2 per cent.
Dave uses a combination drying
system. He rapid -dries the corn down to
about 20 per cent from the harvest
moisture and his drying temperature is
about 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Ours is the typical, conventional
dryer in that initial stages, except we use
lower temperatures," Dave says.
"At 20 per cent moisture, we wouldn't
have any storage grain as the heat from
the dryer wouldn't have cooled. The corn
goes into a storage bin which has full
floor aeration in the bottom with high
capacity cooling fans. When the corn
comes out oTrfhe dryer, it is accumulates
in the storage bin for a day where it is
steeped."
After cooling, the moisture is reduced
another two points by letting the corn sit
and sweat, which brings it to about 18 per
cent.
That corn at 18 per cent is equivalent to
an outside temperature of just about
freezing in the fall. The Brocks run the
aeration fan on clear, sunny, and lower
humidity days. "By natural air and
picking the days of lower humidity we
have our corn down to about 15 to 15'/2
per cent moisture," Dave says.
"The advantage to doing that is that
you do not overdry because when you're
taking it down very rapidly, the corn
becomes overdry.
"As insurance against spoilage in the
bin in this system of ours, we don't
overdry because it's a very slow process
in getting the last two or three per cent
out of it. You end up with a higher quality
corn because of the slower temperature
change with this type of system.
THE YOUNG FARMER__________________
Dave Brock puts his corn into a storage bin
bottom with high capacity cooling fans.
"Consequently, you don't end up with
the stress cracks on the kernels. Severe
stress cracks result in a lot of fines (when
kernels are chewed up because of
mechanical damage)," Dave says.
The other advantage, he says, is that
people who use the combination drying
system save about 30 per cent in energy
costs.
This will be the fourth season Dave
has used this system and he says there is
a very noticeable improvement in quality
over the other dryer set-up. So far,
quality corn has not commanded a
premium price, but has always been
easier to sell in a slow market.
As to Dave's reasons for going into the
combination drying system he says, "I
felt if you're drying corn to sell as a cash
crop, you'd have to consider higher
energy prices in the future, so 1 tried to
develop a practical system that still had
volume. "
Dave, a former agricultural re-
presentative for Middlesex County, got
the idea of using the system after reading
about how it had been used in the states.
He was interested because of the higher
energy efficiency and the corn quality
that it promoted.
One of the problems with using
natural air to dry corn, he says, is our
proximity to the Great Lakes system
which makes the air very humid.
"Basically it's no problem to carry corn
to 18 points through winter. It's as the air
warms up in the spring that you try to
have it aerating more."
which has full floor aeration in the
[Photo by Rannev)
He said that corn is not the only thing
for which they use their low-temperature
drying system. He said they take wheat
off at 17 to 18 per cent moisture and then
aerate to dry, using just the natural air of
the summer.
"Because it's seed wheat you can't use
any artificial heat. You can't start harvest
earlier. You've got to wait and just dry it
naturally".
Dave says combination drying is
becoming more prevalent all the time. "I
do say that the commercial elevators in
Canada have been slow to enter this area
just from a management point of view,
but there are some American commercial
elevators using this combination system
to dry their corn.
"I bought a commercial type system.
It's how I use it that makes it different.
We applied for a grant from the
provincial government to experiment
with it."
"We dry about half our corn and the
other half goes in a high moisture silo to
be fed to hogs. To anybody who's going
to be sure they're feeding corn, high
moisture corn is the way to be, but if
you're going to sell it as a cash crop, the
other way is better.
"Our costs would run about half that
of commercial elevators", he said.
"There's a lot of things that can be
changed to make a drying system more
efficient like drying in the daytime and
not at night. You have to use a
combination dryer system to be practical
in this area," Dave said.
THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1980 PG. 29