Do you know what quality impact moving corn through your handling, drying and storage set up has? It can be significant, but if you’re not sampling (and sampling properly) at several points in the process, you can’t know for sure. What’s more, a good chunk of damage, either through too hot/too fast drying or moisture migration in the bin, is avoidable, but takes tweaking and monitoring of your set up.
In this episode of the Corn School, Helmut Spieser, agricultural engineer with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, walks us through a typical corn handling, drying and storage set up. At specific points, he explains how and why to sample, where you could be losing quality or causing damage to the crop, and why, when the corn hits the dryer, good notes from past years are essential.
What’s more, once corn is dry and in the bin, the work isn’t done. Spieser notes that to maintain quality through winter, it’s important to remember that damage isn’t avoided just because the corn is in a waterproof structure. Winter aeration/temperature management is essential to maintain quality in the bin. Remember: once a crop is binned, the best you can do is maintain its quality — there’s no improving it, but there’s certainly a risk to spoilage.
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