In my short eight year farming career I have never dried corn and in Nebraska I just have a wait and corn will naturally dry down to 16% and under in the field. But not this year, corn's moisturelevels will stay in the low to high 20s and there is nothing I can do about it. Onlya dry, long, sunny and warm spell make a difference - but this is November and that isn't likely.

Resurrected Middle States bin drier.

Knowing that corn will be wet I decided to resurrect our old Middle States batch drier that is actuallya 7,000 to 8,000 bu bin with a drier/fan combination.

This drier hasn't been used in at least 15 years (1992 to be exact) but we have used the fan and it works fine. However the wiring was all weather-checked and frayed, the propane gauge broken, and propane feed lines were worn out. The bin has a twin set of stirators that work but something electrical is wrong with the screw drive that pulls them in and out as the stirators circle the bin. So I hired an electrician who is also a grain bin and drier expert to come out and rewire the drier and fan, repair the stirators and check over the drier. I also purchased a gauge and new brass tubing and feed lines. Our local coop brought out a 500 gallon tank of propane and hooked it up.

So how will this play out? We have one field of soybeans to harvest and do I wait to let them dry down in the field to 14 and under or take them wet and put them in the drier? I will know that by the middle of the week when we take out the beans.

Corn will have to be dried but I have to figure out how long will it take to dry 7,000 to 8,000 bushels of wet corn. Since we no longer have the owner's manual to the drier and the company went out of business, I will have to figure out how long it will corn take to dry each batch of corn.

A call to the local grain bin dealer who actually sold my Dad the drier gave me all the information I need. He said that in a 24-foot bin with grain 6 foot deep and using a fan with a 10 hp motor and without stirators, it will take 24 hours to dry the grain down 9 points from 25.5 to 16.5 percent.

However I want to dry a bin full of corn. He said a 24 foot bin with grain 20 foot deep using a fan with a 10 hp motor and stirators, the grain should dry down 9 points in 48 hours. That is exactly what my brother thought it might take. However teh electric motor on the fan isn't large enough so I will probably replace it this week..

Drying corn will be the norm this fall and we need to get started combining corn so we can take out corn and start drying it in batches. This will be a drawn out harvest.