Supplemental Heat on Tough Canola

I am planning on using a frost fighter heater to add some heat to aid in drying down canola in hopes that I can pick away at harvest until weather gets better. I have a pretty good handling and monitoring system. 7500 bushel hopper bins each with 7hp fans, temp/moisture cables and remote fan control that can be operated via the Intragrain website or mobile. My first question is how tough would be safe to start taking canola off? I was hoping to start at around a MC of 14 but Mother Nature doesn’t want to let it get down to that. Last sample I ran was MC of 15.6. It has 0 greens and combines well so I’d hate to wait for worse conditions. At this point I am just hoping to get canola down to 12 with heat and air if possible. This seems to be the threshold that the elevators will start to take it. I also have a few thousand bushels off at 8-8.5 so could blend a little if needed.

         If I were you I would take your canola off at 15; but cool it down immediately — as cold as possible. Let’s say your canola came in at 15 C and you cooled it down to 0. You will be doing two things, first and most importantly you will be making it safe.  It will not be spoiling at 0.  The next day assuming it is a reasonably nice day, apply the supplemental heat to the bin, using the day time temperature plus the heater we might be throwing air at it that is 20 C.  I would heat the grain all day.  The bottom will warm first but the heat will gradually get to the top.  It probably would take all day.  If you don’t get the heat right to the top, it is not the end of the world; but you must realize that you will only be drying the bottom when we cool it down. If your heater is big enough, the heat might get to the top; shut the heat and fan off and turn it on again at night to cool it down.  OK so let’s say that we got the temp of the grain to 15 C.  Then cool it down the following night to say 0, and we should have taken about 1 point out. Follow this same strategy 3, 4  or 5 days and nights and you should have at least the bottom dry. As the bottom becomes dry, remove it, and continue the process with the much thinner layer in the bin.  Do this heat during the day/ dry at night thing until that too is dry.

My second question is should I run the fans without heat to cool the grain down to outside temperatures?  Yes, I like your idea of only filling the bins to half, and then immediately cooling down to say 0 C. Once cold, it can sit there for a week or a month, waiting for its turn for a dose of supplemental heat   When I took the last sample the outside temp was 5 degrees and the grain was 13.8 oddly enough. I have read your blog and plan on doing cycles of heating grain up and then cooling it off. I have lots of space to move stuff around if needed so my plan is to run the heater to pairs of bins and fill half to 2/3rds full. Raise the temps of those 2 bins and then move to the next 2 while cooling the first 2 off. I could keep going in that rotation for awhile if needed. Perfect!

I would also be able to shift those bins to a number of other empty bins. Thirdly, when doing the cycling what temperature should a guy aim for on the top end. As warm as you can get it by applying heat for one day. Depending on the size of your heater, I doubt that you will be able to raise the heat at the top by more than 10 to 15 degrees.  I did some calculations on one of my blogs, I would have to check.  With a modest heater of 50,000 Btu/hr. I think you should be able to raise the temp of 4000 bu by 15 degrees  —  I would have to check — I would have to know your heater size, daytime temperature etc. It’s all about the specific heat of the canola.

Seeing as every 15 degrees is equal to 1% moisture should I aim for a grain temp of 15 and cool to 0 each time?  Yes

Judging by the weather for next 2 weeks it seems like that could be very doable. What calculations would I use to figure out how long this might take for each cycle?  Each cycle should be over a day.  Heat it up during the day, using the daytime heat,and then cool at night.  Always cool it immediately.  Do not leave the warm grain for any length of time.

Just so I can avoid combining too much too fast. Also, does the 15 degrees = 1% rule apply below 0? Would getting grain to -15 be the same as knocking off 1%? No it would not.  There are two things that would mitigate that rule of thumb 15C/%.   If the canola was dry, say 9% — if you cooled it 15C, you won’t get to 8%, you would only see slight drying.  And if it is cold; say you cooled the Canola from 0 to -15, my guess would be that you might take out a half a point?   The rule assumes the grain is tough, and the temperature is around room temp, 20C.

I appreciate the work you’ve done on this. We farm in area where dryers are rare and we’ve never experienced this kind of delay. Even in 2016 we were done combine the 3rd week of September.