Do you have canola stored on-farm? If so, it’s time to check those bins.
It’s likely been a fair amount of time since the crop came off, and even if conditions were perfect at harvest (but let’s face it, they rarely are) it’s time to check in.
As Courtney Boyachek, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, explains, extreme jumps in air temperature throughout the winter months can have significant impacts on oilseeds.
When these extreme shifts happen, you’re going to want to be checking those bins fairly regularly — at least a couple times a week, says Boyachek.
“Hot pockets can come up really fast in the winter. And it doesn’t take long for that hot pocket to move throughout the bin and risk not only spoiling your grain, but also downgrading your crop,” she notes.
As we move into cooler temperatures, the colder air in the bin is going to start to move to the bottom, and the warmer air is going to rise to the top, creating those hot pockets Boyachek talked about. However — colder temperature can really be our friend when it comes to storing canola.
“But that doesn’t mean we stop monitoring our grain,” she says. “Making sure that when the outdoor conditions are changing that we are very closely monitoring the bin just to be sure, and then if there are hot pockets that occur, being able to cycle out that grain, or using probes to make sure that we’re cooling it down. [That will help] mitigate the risk.”
Check out the full conversation in this Canola School episode, below:
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