Engineering Notes Index

Minnesota/Wisconsin Engineering Notes
Winter 2000

Stretching Harvest & Post-Harvest Input Dollars

Bill Wilcke, Minnesota Extension Engineer
(With input from other North Central Region Extension Engineers)

Money is tight this year for many farm families. Here is an outline of some things that they might consider to improve net returns for their farm operations.

Things that can be done this winter:

Don't let stored crops go out of condition!!!

• Aerate as needed to keep crops cool.
• Don't run fans continuously - that wastes electricity & could result in excess moisture loss.
• Check stored crops and aeration equipment regularly.
• Move unaerated piles before spring.
• Take action at first sign of problems.

Consider using cold treatment instead of chemicals to kill insects.

• Normal suggested winter storage temperature is 20° to 30°F, but holding a crop at 0°F for at least five days will kill insects in all life stages.
• Cool stored crop to about 0°F as quickly as possible and hold at that temp. for several weeks. (Approx. cooling time in hours = 15 ÷ airflow in cfm/bu.)
• In late winter, aerate to bring crop temp. back up to 20° to 30°F.

Seek premiums for non-genetically modified (non-GM) crops. If you grow only non-GM crops or if you have done a good job of segregating GM and non-GM crops, you might be able to find buyers who will offer slightly higher prices for the non-GM crops.

Things to consider for 2000 harvest:

Plant varieties that will bring higher profit per acre. This could include conventional non-GM varieties, GM varieties, or value-enhanced varieties that have characteristics that make them more valuable for some uses. Consider:

• Input costs: technology fees, seed cost, weed control cost, segregation costs
• Yield
• Sale price per bushel
• Risk: alternative uses for the crop if weather or other factors make the crop unacceptable for the initially targeted market or expected premiums are no longer offered.
• Harvest moisture and drying costs
• Costs for segregating and maintaining the identity of the crop
• Transportation costs to deliver to market

Plan for less expensive and more effective ways to preserve the identity of value-enhanced crops.

• Modify equipment for easy clean out.
• Work with neighbors to exchange equipment and or storage space to reduce potential contamination problems. For example, if both you and your neighbor grow both GM and non-GM crops, use one person's combine for all the GM crops and the other person's combine for all the non-GM crops.
• If adding storage, use smaller bins rather than larger ones.
• Repair your own smaller, older bins or consider buying smaller used bins from neighbors.

Try to minimize soil compaction during harvest.

• This will reduce tillage costs and/or yield reduction.
• Avoid harvesting during wet soil conditions.
• Keep heaviest vehicles on headlands and out of fields.

Seek ways to reduce harvest equipment costs.

• Consider hiring custom harvester instead of buying new combine. Be aware that this gives you less control over harvest moisture, which could affect drying costs and use of high-moisture storage.
• Offer to provide labor in exchange for use of a neighbor's equipment.
• Share equipment purchase and use with other farmers.

Start harvesting corn to be ensiled early.

• Best moisture for fermentation is 25 to 30%. Many years, corn dries faster than expected and it drops below the minimum moisture for good fermentation. This can result in moldy, poor quality feed and poor animal performance.

If it's early in the season and long-term forecast is good, delay harvest or reduce rate of harvesting.

• This should result in lower harvest moisture and lower drying cost.
• Allows use of smaller dryers
• Will probably reduce tillage costs as well (because there isn't as much time available for fall tillage after harvest)

Set combines to minimize seed damage and harvest losses.

Clean crops to remove broken seeds and foreign material.

• Will reduce airflow resistance, which will reduce drying and aeration costs
• Will reduce mold and insect problems
• If initial levels are high, will reduce market discounts
• Try to make profitable use of screenings. Screenings often have good feed value: use the screenings for your own animals or sell them to a livestock feeder rather than discarding them.

Don't dry corn any further than necessary.

• Consider feeding wet corn during winter. If corn is kept cold, it can be held at moderate moistures without spoilage during the winter months.
• Avoid drying to less than market moisture. Corn that will be fed or sold by spring does not need to be drier than 15% moisture; corn stored into summer should be at 14% moisture; and corn that will be stored for a year or more should be at 13% moisture.

Order full truckloads of LP in summer to get a better price.

Consider changing management of old dryers before buying new ones.

• Recirculate exhaust air to reduce energy use, or
• Unload grain hot and cool in storage.
• Use a larger aerated storage bin to increase wet holding capacity ahead of the dryer. This will let you run a small dryer more hours per week.

Consider used equipment before buying new.

• Used conveyors are sometimes available from old elevators or feed mills.
• Buy a good used dryer instead of a new one.
• If the current dryer is too small but it works well, add a used dryer to work in parallel with the existing one.

Improve safety of equipment and facilities: accidents are expensive in terms of medical costs, replacement labor, and downtime.  

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