Stirators - love them or hate them. I hate checking my bins fearing one isn't working

This is typically how most farm technologies seem to be sold to farmers. They tell you an estimate of yield gain (in this case 3-5 bushels) and an estimate of cost (2 bushels), so it seems to make economic sense to adopt the technology. What they don't say is they determined the gain from surveying a 1000s of plots over multiple years of data, inherent in the data is that nearly half of the responses saw no effect or a negative effect. Only when you see firms selling guarentees on yield gains does every farmer have a 90% or greater probability of seeing the positive yield effect. If you plant RR2 beans for 20 years you will probably eventually obtain the yield gain they sold you.

We have observed similar results with radishes planted at 3# per acre. The problem with the higher seeding rate is the cost per acre. At a cost of approximately $2.50/lb with a 6# seeding rate plus the cost of oats or rye the per acre cost becomes very expensive.

Randall - I agree. I planted 2 lbs and it cost $2.70 per lb. While I would like to add more radishes, it would have to be at the sake of something else or otherwise the seed costs would get too high. I guess we have to decide what we want to accomplish and buy a mixture based on those goals. If compaction management is the only goal, only buy radish seed. It would be no more expensive than ripping the soil.

Are radishes proven to break compaction as well as ripping?

I had to see it to believe it. I left the bin fan on dry corn for a few wet days and the bin raised about a half inch off the foundation. While it was up, I re-tarred under the flange, then started the stirators and bin settled back down.

...How does motor heat get into the airstream on a centrifucal fan? I can understand on an axial fan..but the centrifucal's motor is outside the fan shroud? Furthermore...the extent of re-wetting probably depends on the airflow you have per bushel. Typical aeration fans only have 1/10 cfm of airflow per bushel..where natural drying fans have over 1 full cfm per bushel minimum. I've added moisture to bins...at least I think I did...because the moisture in the bottom half of the bin went up as I unloaded it..not the typical lower moisture level you see when you just dry and then aerate for a short time. I do believe it's harder to add moisture...but it's not impossible.

I once put dry corn in a rented bin that originally had a large bottom drying unit and transition. We latter had three days of cold, wet and windy weather that apparently blew right into the transition. The corn ended up so wet it would hardly flow from the bin. I mounted a 12" fan on some plywood, bolted it to the transition and ran it in exhaust mode. Fortunately I was able to pull the moisture back out during a few sunny days. I don't know how far up into the bin the moisture had moved but felt I dodged a large bullet when we finally got the corn moving.

Hmmm...they used to put knife sharpeners on silage harvesters...you think they might need a whetstone for round balers now? LOL

I was told you could freeze dry grain by running the fans the coldest day of the week. -10 degrees would be great. Freeze drying is the process of going directly from solid to gas with no liquid. It doesn't make sense to me, but is hard to argue with someone who is doing it. On the other hand, you would think Shouse knows what he is talking about.

Thank Goodness we have fairly dry corn Dan, 18-19%. Just enough heat here this year to get by. I feel for the guys stuck with 30% corn. I had that one year and waited until January to shell it and got one of the best prices I ever received.

Just started the popcorn yesterday, moisture was 14.9%. Stalks are so green at the bottom, the juice is running out of them after shelling. Headline really contributes to late season intactness on this crop.

Dan, I hope you didn't plant them right next to your house! They are an interesting cover crop but you forgot to mention how bad they stink when they rot in the field in the spring. Different than manure in that it doesn't go away in a few days, unless you use tillage of course. We had mixed results using the tillage radish; not sure if it was coincidence or not but we had the worst case of slugs and slug damage in corn planted into the radishes the following spring that we've ever seen. Our thoughts were that the large root opening left the following spring created an easy zone for slugs to move in and out of the soil. It didn't help our compaction much either, but a heavy clay based soil type may have been the biggest challenge. Thanks and good luck!

We aerial seeded some Daikon radish and rapeseed the third week of August. They got 1/4" of rain that night. They are very thin and very small now. The handful I planted in the soil by the barn are 12" tall. I guess it would take a very heavy rain to get away with a seeding on top.

I forgot to mention that we planted the cover crop on soybeans as the leaves were yellowing. That is a great picture of your radishes

The smell is highly overated. I actually so less slugs with them so who knows. I do know my notill corn made 22 bu more behind them and my beans about 8 bushels.

Let's try that again! I SAW less slugs and pests in the radish plantings. Yes they do stink for awhile. They will be discussed again at the Ohio NoTill meeting in Plain City Ohio December 8. I hope i can throw together some notes together before then! I will be talking about fertilizing cover crops to release more nutrients.

I haven't heard much this year, I don't think as much got sprayed this year but what I have heard is still a positive.

The field corn I sprayed with Headline seems to be drying down as well as most. Highest moisture I've seen is 23% from some 111 day corn planted May 11th. Some other 109 day corn planted within a few days was 20.9%. Not too bad in my book. Biggest problem I'm running into is the ear shank strength on my popcorn. The stalk and shank are so green, the stripper plates have to adjusted exactly right, or the ear just pulls down between them and plugs up the row unit. Going to try some tricks today.....wish me luck..LOL

The best we have cut are RR and the non GMP's close behind. With the premium, they have been more profitable for me but the weeds, oh the weeds in this wet year! Looking hard at LL, do some articles on them if you can get some good information on them, Dan.

Someone mentioned on another site, that RR2 varieties are being introduced just in time for Monsanto to benefit from another 20 years of patent protection. Now there won't be any more genetic improvement in the original RR beans, and Monsanto will be charging us that additional $20 while improving the new genetics. I'm thinking of trying a few Liberty Link and conventional varieties next year now.

GMO's are all about the playing the patenting game. Always have been. The underlying genetic improvements due to gene sequencing are the real yield enhancement genetics, not the transgenics. By inserting a transgenic gene, the whole thing gets patented.

Welcome to my world, extreme, east central ND. Hard to imagine someone who lives 350 miles south of me complaining about the weather! Here we have learned to wait til at least 28 moisture, better at 25 or less, dryers rule! The guys with air bins and mold will be scrambling.

Mike - question is do I wait till corn gets down to 25 or 26 and if so how long wil I have to wait? Being a part time farmer with time this weekend, I can take out some corn and begin the drying process. I can't wait to leave your world and get back to 15 or 16% corn by November 1.

With time on your hands, I would ease into it, rather than go wild and break everything. Have heard the same horror stories about stirrers and wet corn. Personally trying to finish combining some black beans, got a whopping 4 hours in today, tough late and early, not much fun trying to flex in the mud! Good Luck, we are all going to need it!

One more thing, if you plan on storing corn that didn't reach maturity, keep a very close eye on it, as a rule it doesn't keep well. Helps to dry a little extra, 13.5 to 14, helps but no guarantees. Elevators here won't take corn over 27%, besides at that moisture the drying charges are pretty hefty.

Mike - all that you say is true. The corn tested 31% yesterday but it was a few ears. Today we took out the end rows and it ranged from 24% to 30% on the monitor, 24 at the top of the field and 30 at the bottom. We are going to go slow, fill the bin with only 9-10 feet of grain, run the fan and stirrators and turn on the heat and then watch it. Corn did not mature on its own and the kernels are soft and wet to the touch. Operator slowed down the cylinder speed and opened the concaves and cobs are really breaking up. So far today we haven't damaged any kernels or created any fines but we are getting to many small cob pieces with the grain. So more adjustment and fine-tuning tomorrow. We are easing into it and taking out part of one field now and will work through our corn in batches. The catch phrase is go slow and take our time and maybe mother nature will shave off a few more points of moisture.

One thing you have to keep in mind about drying corn. The situation will get much worse if the ambient temp drops because it will take much much longer to dry a batch. You have to weigh the savings of a couple points dryer corn, against the odds of a tenfold drop in air temp. Unfortunately, this year is like any other for us up here in Canada Good luck

Well we are easing into it - and we are being forced to. On Saturday we took out 5 acres averaging 25 to 27 percent on the monitor with grain averaging 170 bushels dry. We loaded it into our drying bin and fired up the fan and heater. The big shaft in the R72 combine that is powered off the engine and runs everything snapped and that shut the combine down for a few days. Then the fan quit working on Saturday afternoon when a switch burned out and needed to be replaed. Fortunately the weather is breezy, sunny and warm and we'll take all the in-field drying we can get before hand.

I have 50 acres of late season planted June17. I have a schanzer dryer but have not used it in years as this is our first late corn in years. We are at 21 moisture I plan to cut it in 10 days. We have a large slab to stack it on. I plan to feed it off at our hog ranch within 30 days Our Ca. weather is for 65-72 degree highs with 38-45 degree lows for the next ten days.I can stack the corn a couple feet high and move it around with a loader. This should further help it dry down. Surprisingly this latest field looks good 5plus tons per acre. What do you boys think?