Nothing stays the same for too long, which keeps things interesting. In the coming year there are many factors that may affect your farm business, CAP reform, changeable commodity prices and the weather to name an obvious few.
Below is the short article produced by Farmers Weekly, look out for it in one of the upcoming issues.
“One of the biggest trends in mobile driers has been the move to automated control system that mean they can largely be left on their own to get on with the job. However farmers often want to still retain some ability to make changes even when an automatic system is working. Continue reading
Following on from a recent interview with Andy Pendry of Burden Bros, Kent. Another grower has brought the Mecmar grain drier to the pages of the Farmers Weekly. This time in an interview published today on FWi, Devon farmer Steve Lee, talked to Farmers Weekly about harvest progress to date.
So far this harvest has seen his 80ha of oilseed rape cut in just three days and also consistently exceeding yield expectations. Despite the dry spell over which the oilseed rape was cut the moisture content varied between 8 and 13%. This allowed Mr Lee to try out his new Mecmar grain drier, an S 40 T, which he said got on extremely well.
Attention to detail is crucial when constantly developing agricultural machinery. Mecmar has been doing this with mobile grain driers since the early 1980s. This process has resulted in hundreds if not thousands of improvements, alterations and adjustments to the original design of the grain driers all with the aim of maximising performance, reliability and durability. This long process of design and improvement, trial and error allows the farmer to have confidence in the Mecmar grain drier.
Andy is the Farm Director and manages the agronomy for in excess of 1,000 hectares of Grade 1 loam and heavy London blue clay soils. As part of this the farm grows 120ha of combinable maize that’s used to feed the farms 1100 suckler herd with followers, with some being sold on to other producers. The maize is generally dried for storage using a Mecmar S 35 T mobile batch grain drier which is used almost exclusively for this task. The average grain maize yield for the Falkone and Cerruti varieties is 8.5 t/ha.
This week the new UK website for Mecmar grain driers was launched. The website has been designed for improved navigation and also to supply more information on our range of Mecmar mobile grain driers. It prominently incorporates this blog allowing access to both basic product information and the more detailed insight offered here. We hope that our customers will benefit from this greater ease of use and the more detailed level of information.The site includes details on our drier range, it presents basic information on the range of Mecmar grain driers. Complimentary to this is the Continue reading
The latest edition of most agricultural magazines contain special features on grain drying and storage. Much of this has been spurred on by the popularity of UK grain, to be held 3rd November at the East of England Showground. The exhibition promises to be an excellent opportunity to examine the entire grain handling industry in one place.As part of this build up we have been giving interviews to various publications. These have addressed a range of subjects from the most recent innovations at Mecmar to our opinions on general industry trends. We have seen articles published in both Anglia Farmer and Farmers Guide. However, the article of particular interest was produced by Continue reading
Angus Cereals is a grain storage and drying facility planned for construction at the port of Montrose. It will serve cereal growers in the Perth, Angus and Kincardine areas. Yesterday, in the Scottish national and regional press, it made an appeal for more cereal growers to invest in the project in the next fortnight to ensure Stage 1 of the project proceeds as planned. The articles illustrate the many advantages for farmers of investing in central storage, though I feel that the economic reasons for investment are a little less clear.The advantages detailed are numerous but essentially relate to offering farmers peace of mind in post harvest. Advantages included; no need to arrange labour for grain drying or transport, drying and storage does not interfere with other on farm activity, no need to worry about rejected loads and, once in store, the grain will be professionally marketed by Openfield, the UK’s largest farm-owned grain business. The system advocates crops going off farm immediately after harvesting and straight to Angus Cereals.
There is no doubt that this would mean less work for the farmer but do these proposed “operational efficiencies” result in an improved economic return for the producer? Regardless of wheat prices, be they favourable as they are now or poor as they were only last season, is the most prudent business decision to add the maximum value to a crop on-farm before sale or have the entire process managed through investing in a central storage scheme like Angus Cereals? Continue reading
The article was as follows:
When studying the batch drier market, many prospective customers tend to make the very reasonable assumption that all driers of a given batch capacity have the same output. This is not the case.
Different manufacturers have their own design, manufacturing and marketing philosophies, which vary widely, resulting in products that are far from being the same. Not only does output between a given batch size vary, but also driers of different manufacture have varying build and construction features, which can directly affect the durability and life of the machine and its ability to work in extreme conditions.
Construction is also important to long term maintenance. Has long term maintenance been considered in the design and construction of the machine you are looking at?
A grain drier is a capital investment, which may well be with you for 10-20 years. It must be worthwhile to look carefully at the key areas that affect output.
Remember, size is not everything.