The benefits of mobile grain elevators for farm storage
Using a purpose-built grain elevator rather than pushing/tipping your crop into store brings five key advantages: quality preservation, faster loading, labour savings, better space use and adaptability to multiple crops – especially important for UK farms facing wetter harvests and tight time windows.
In the agricultural industry, efficient grain storage and handling are crucial for maintaining the quality and value of harvested crops.
One fundamental aspect of this process is determining the most effective method for loading grain into storage facilities. While tipping and piling grain with a grain pusher is a widely used means of loading grain into store, using grain elevators offers a number of noticeable benefits that can significantly enhance grain storage efficiency and crop quality.
Why grain elevators are preferred over tipping and pushing
1. Preservation of Grain Quality:
Grain elevators facilitate effective handling of harvested crop, minimising damage and preserving its quality. One of the greatest advantages of using a grain elevator is that crop is spread evenly and not compacted. This is particularly important during a wetter harvest as the newly harvested damp crop is spread more thinly and evenly over the drier crop.
This even distribution prevents pockets of damp and compacted grain (“hot-spots”) that hamper airflow and promote spoilage. In one UK trial the use of an elevator reduced spoiled grain by up to 15%. When grain is delivered evenly into store by an elevator, better airflow can be achieved, allowing drying systems to work more efficiently, saving dramatically on drying costs.
2. Enhanced Efficiency:
Elevators are designed for continuous operation, allowing for a continuous flow of grain into storage facilities. This not only reduces loading times but also enables farmers to handle larger volumes of grain within a shorter period, optimising overall productivity during busy harvesting seasons.
3. Labour Savings:
By using the elevator to load into store, the trailer driver can oversee much of the store loading process, quickly and efficiently. Labour associated with manual loading decreases, ensuring better overall productivity and labour utilisation.
4. Space Optimisation:
Grain elevators offer a space-efficient solution for loading grain into storage, ensuring consistent and uniform filling at all times.
5. Versatility and Adaptability:
Grain elevators are highly versatile and can be customised to meet the specific needs of different storage facilities. With a wide range of options and specifications available, a mobile elevator provides a very flexible solution which can be moved and used across different applications, and multiple crop types.
6. Key considerations when selecting a grain elevator
- Is it mobile or fixed?
- What capacity (tonnes per hour) is needed for your store size and harvest throughput?
- Can it handle multiple crop types (wheat, barley, oilseed rape)?
- Integration with your drying system/airflow.
- Maintenance and local support options – speak to Tong Engineering for more information on our support services.
In summary, when it comes to maximising the efficiency of your grain store-loading processes, the advantages of using grain elevators really make for a cost-effective means of crop transfer from field to store.
How to Improve Grain Storage Efficiency on Your Farm
By adopting this efficient way of loading crop into store, growers can streamline their operations and improve productivity with a proven elevating solution that provides continuous operation in the most demanding environments.
Watch the video above to see the Tong Swift Lift Extendo elevator loading grain into store.
Want to see it in action? Contact Tong Engineering’s Lincolnshire team for a demo of the Swift Lift Extendo.
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