For more than 30 years D & B has built a name by consistently delivering quality products and prompt, reliable service at competitive prices. 

On the farm - we work with operations of all sizes with their grain storage, handling and conditioning needs.  We offer a full staff millwright specialists and electricians to get the job done and to keep you running.  Turn to us for:

• Brock Grain Bins, bin floors, unloads and power sweeps
  
• Brock Superb Grain Dryers, Meyer Tower Dryers, Brock Commercial Dryers (BCT)
• Shivver's Performance Systems
• Refurbished KanSun grain dryers, along with KanSun parts and service
• Hutchinson augers
• DMC & Brock air systems
• Intelliair in-bin monitoring systems
• Kongskilde grain cleaners
  
• Butler all-steel buildings
• Liberty Building Systems
  
• Electrical contracting for agricultural, commercial and residential applications
  

Thinking about a on-farm shop?  D & B is an authorized Butler Builder.  Call for a free consultation today. 

Commercial Customers - As an authorized Butler Builder, we're able to meet a variety of needs, whether you need a basic steel building, a retrofit roof, a complex facility, or one requiring vast open spaces, you'll find fast, easy, and environmentally friendly solutions.

Wallace Farmer
February 2011

What experts want most in on-farm grain storage
By Rod Swoboda

For storage bins, not drying bins or dryers, Charles Hurburgh, professor of ag engineering at Iowa State University, observes that many on-farm grain bins need a good monitoring system to keep track of grain temperatures.  It's hard to track grain temperature and maintain grain quality in large storage structures.

Hurburgh says a system that records temperature data over a period of time is most useful.  Increases in temperature of stored grain indicate heating, alerting farmers to take prompt action.  You'll either have to remove the grain or run some air through it with fans to prevent spoilage.

"In the larger bins there's not practical way to manually take the temperature of the grain and get a representative reading," says Hurburgh.  "Take a normal thermometer, shove it in the grain, and you have a temperature at that point.  But grain is a good insulator, so only 10 or 15 feet away, grain temperature could be quite different. 

The most common monitoring systems drop a wire into the grain at several places, with thermocouples ever 10 feet or so.  You get a readout on each cable.  If there's 50 feet of grain, there may be five or six thermocouples reading temperature, and you have four or five cables in the bin.  So you get 25 or 30 readings.

That increases the odds of finding something wrong, such as hot spots.  It doesn't always mean the cable will go through the hottest grain, but if you get a spot where the temperature is starting to rise, you know somewhere near that thermocouple, there's a problem.

Want to find out what you can do to monitor your corn?  Check out the these alternatives from BinManager Grain Management System!