Grainswest Tech 2021

Tech 2021 grainswest.com 27 The case for grain-handling upgrades Bin yard buildouts Perry Rumpf farms just west of Battleford, SK, alongside his father Henry and brothers Alan and Mark. Part of the family’s farm transition, which just concluded, was the creation of a long overdue handling, storage and drying setup. Their setup has been designed specifically to clean pulses destined for export to Bangladesh and other parts of the Asia- Pacific marketplace. For a number of years, the Rumpfs had 350,000 bushels of storage capacity. The capability of the handling system was about 100 MT per hour and it took about 30 minutes to unload a super-B, which Rumpf described as “not terrible.” However, as the family expanded the farm and increased yields, it became apparent change was needed. A plan was hatched to push overall capacity to 750,000 bushels of storage. They now have added 260,000 of their planned 400,000-bushel expansion, most recently in the form of three 20,000-bushel hopper bottom bins, and more were being built during the summer. They also have six 64,000-bushel bins in the yard. Today, when trucks unload, they quickly dump into a 5,600-bushel surge hopper bin, which is constantly moving at 100 MT/hr. A super-B coming into the yard can unload and F armers love simplicity. The impulse to eliminate complication drives them to innovate and create solutions to various farm problems. As farms have grown larger and advancements in plant genetics have increased yields, progressively greater crop hauls have made on-farm grain handling more complex. And where should this grain be stored? After all, farmers don’t want to be off-the- combine price takers. They have few options, one of which is turning their farmyard into a miniature grain terminal. On-farm grain handling, storage and drying solutions have continued their meteoric rise across many parts of the Prairies and for good reason— they protect the farmer’s crops, which is to say, their livelihood. BY TREVOR BACQUE PHOTOS BY CREW6 PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE