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CANADIAN FARMERSMAY BEMISSINGOUTONGRAIN-DRYINGBENEFITS
ACCORDING TO AGRICULTURAL
experts, grain-drying technologies are
being drastically overlooked in the Cana-
dian farming industry, and many farmers
could be losing out on profit by not taking
advantage of the evolving tools at their
disposal.
Fuji Jian is an assistant professor at
the University of Manitoba Biosystems
Engineering Department, which conducts
collaborative research as part of an inter-
disciplinary group headquartered at the
Canadian Wheat Board Centre for Grain
Storage. Jian pointed out that for canola
and wheat drying, countries such as China
and India employ horizontal drying,
whereas here we use vertical drying. “The
vertical drying usually has high airflow
resistance and needs much more time,”
he said. Typically, Canadian grain farmers
are drying in late fall and early winter, so
vertical dryers are thought to be efficient
at using rising heat, but the tradeoff is
greater cost to operate fans and, according
to Jian, non-uniform drying caused by
dockage. “If we use the horizontal air-
drying, usually the drying time is short
and you can use less fan power,” said Jian.
Horizontal drying technology, however,
has not been tested in Canadian condi-
tions. Nor is there any government fund-
ing earmarked for exploring grain-drying
technologies.
“It’s difficult to get funding [to study
these] technologies, which would be seen
as a small project,” said Jian. Horizontal
aeration or ventilation can save a lot of
drying time, as well as save money by
making the use of high-temperature dry-
ers unnecessary.
Jian also said that small and middle-sized
farmers in other nations have focused on
cleaning seed prior to drying, in part to
remove weed seeds and chaff to improve
Photos:AGCO
Grain drying technology such as that pictured here continues to advance, allowing producers to save time and
increase profitability.
Fall
2017
Grains
West
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