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drying corn with fans only
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Gerald J.
Posted 3/30/2015 13:06 (#4486455 - in reply to #4485651)
Subject: RE: drying corn with fans only



In my experience, air drying works about 8 years out of ten. Fall conditions the other two years leave a moldy bin of wet corn. And that's starting with 18% or dryer. Starting with 20+% is asking for trouble. Corn can only sit in a bin warm at high moisture for a limited time before it grows mold. There are very good tables of that time in the Grain Drying Handbook from Midwest Plans Service. Back 30 or more years ago there were companies who claimed to dry corn with air alone or with a few electric lamps as the heat source, roughly 0.1% of the heat of a standard dryer. They went out of business from being sued by farmers who lost whole crops to mold in the bad years.

The second drier I wired I suggested the neighbor (30' bin with stirrators) set the thermostat to the afternoon high before he went to his evening job. He dried that bin in 30 days with less than 900 gallons of LP. With that screaming axial blower (20 hp IIRC) 200 feet from his house I'm surprised his wife let him live several more years. With the thermostat set for 130 degrees he probably would have dried the bin full in a week or less but would have used 850 gallons of LP per day. Some dry at 165, but toast the corn a bit giving it a darker color. The product using 130 degree is pretty quick and very beautiful golden colored corn, often taken to the feed mill instead of sold down the line. The low temperature dried corn has that nice golden color too, if its not darkened by mold from taking too long to dry.

Gerald J.
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