Maintaining Grain Quality During Drying and Storage

William Wilcke, Professor
Nalladurai Kaliyan, Research Assistant
Vance Morey, Professor
Mario Carrillo, Graduate Student, Entomology
William Hutchison, Professor, Entomology
Stephen Kells, Assistant Professor, Entomology

Funding Source

Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station

Objective

The overall purpose of our research was to reduce use of chemical insecticides for managing insects (specifically Indianmeal moth) in stored grain.

Need or Impact

Stored grain insects cause significant losses of grain dry matter and grain quality. Chemical insecticides have traditionally been used to manage stored grain insects, but applying these chemicals is costly and can expose humans to health and safety hazards. Also, insects are becoming resistant to some of the insecticides, and some of the insecticides are being phased out. In grain producing states that have low outdoor temperatures during much of the year (Minnesota, for example), it appears to be possible to manage populations of stored grain insects by appropriate use of grain aeration with outdoor air. Our research team used long-term weather records, computer simulations, laboratory studies of insects, and field observations of insects to develop management recommendations that will help limit populations of stored grain insects without use of chemical insecticides.

Project Status

We submitted papers that describe simulation results and the model that we developed to simulate grain and grain bin headspace temperatures to entomology and engineering journals. A poster that focused on mortality of Indianmeal moth larvae feeding on whole and broken corn kernels was presented at the summer 2005 ASABE meeting. A Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering graduate student who worked on this project received his M.S. in 2004 and an Entomology graduate student who worked on this project received his Ph.D. in 2005. Results from the research are being incorporated into presentations to farmers and agribusiness personnel at extension workshops and into extension articles prepared for general distribution to agricultural media sources.