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Management Practices To Reduce Grain Storage Losses
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Clean Before Fill
Bins should be cleaned before filling with newly harvested grain. Perforated floors and air ducts also should be cleaned. Spilled and spoiled grain in and around the bins should be cleaned to avoid cross contamination and rodent activity. Spraying insecticides and fungicides inside the cleaned bins will help to eliminate carryover of insect and mold spores from the previously stored grains.
Cool and Dry The Grain
Decrease the grain moisture to the safe storage level and cooling the grain below 15˚C will help to eliminate insect and mold development during storage. Aeration or chilled aeration is the process help to reduce the temperature. Drying process reduces the moisture content. Drying can be done with properly designed systems using either ambient air or heated air.
Turn the Grain Often
Turning the grain inside the bin (moving from one bin to another) brings grain to average temperature inside the bin and eliminates temperature gradients and thus moisture migration.
Clean the Grain
Removing broken seeds, foreign materials and dockages before loading into the bin will help for better air movement inside the bin as well as reduce insect and mold problems. Use of grain spreaders during filling of bins helps in distributing fines more uniformly and thus helps in reducing the risk of localised hot spot development. Use of spreaders however packs the grains thus increasing resistance to airflow and could reduce airflow through grains significantly because airflow output from a fan decreases as static pressure increases.
Avoid Mixing Grain
Mixing newly harvested grains with the grain already in the bin has potential to create huge temperature and moisture gradients inside the bin and thus leading to increased chances of spoilage.
Monitor Continuously
Regular monitoring of grain moisture and temperature will help to identify the potential hazards on time and take control actions in a proactively. Nowadays various types of temperature sensors, combination of temperature and moisture sensors are available in the market for continuous monitoring of grain bins.