Prairie producers can safely store canola seed over the summer with minimal effort, provided it starts the season in the right condition, says a Saskatchewan researcher.
The results of a summer-long canola storage study conducted this summer took Joy Agnew by surprise.
“We got some great, interesting data, but it did not validate my hypothesis at all,” said Agnew, project manager at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute.
She monitored the temperature and relative humidity of canola stored in 4,000 and 2,800 bushel grain bins on a commercial farm near Lake Lenore, Sask.
Read Also
Spider mites big soybean problem this season
Spider mite issues have been geographically limited but significant where they occur, said John Gavloski, an entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture.
The initiative, funded by the provincial canola grower commissions and the national council, sought to address concerns about summertime storage. It is a unique problem stemming from the 2013-14 grain transportation logjam that resulted in a larger-than-normal carryout.
Statistics Canada pegged canola stocks at 2.36 million tonnes July 31, up 300 percent from last year.
The grain in one bin was turned at the start of the project in early June, with frozen grain coming out of the bin at -25 C. Another bin was aerated, while the third was left untouched.
Agnew had thought leaving the grain untouched could lead to spoilage, while running the fan might increase moisture content. The monitoring revealed some close calls, but researchers found no problems when they pulled the grain out of the bin in late July.
“It really didn’t matter what you did, whether you ran the fans, whether you turned it or you left it alone,” she said.
“But I do have to make it very clear that that is technically only valid for the condition of grain that we were working with, which was very dry canola that had been frozen over the winter.”
Seed at the core of the untouched bin was still frozen at the end of monitoring in late July, while the moisture content of seed in the aerated bin remained 6.6 percent.
“I honestly can’t tell you what was happening,” said Agnew. “Theoretically, warming it up was adding a lot of moisture to it, but it didn’t translate into the grain itself.”
The Canola Council of Canada recommends moisture content of no more than eight percent when storing seed for more than five months.
Further tests would be needed to offer recommendations for larger grain bins or seed with higher moisture content.
“If the grain started at a higher moisture content or close to dry, then I can’t say that same conclusion would be found,” said Agnew.
Turning and aerating resulted in a more even distribution of temperatures in the bin but also led to spikes in temperatures. However, stable conditions persisted.
Agnew initially thought that the bin that was turned might need to be turned more than once.
“It just evened itself out and it was nice and cool in the core again and slowly warming up as it got closer to the edge of the bin, just like the base line bin, so we just left it,” said Agnew.
The temperature difference between the edge and the core in the untouched bin rose as high as 26 C.
Canola should be cooled to at least 15 C once it goes into the bin in the fall, according to the canola council.
The temperature in the un-touched bin, which was still being monitored in September, is already at safe levels.
“I think that at the end of the day, the message is monitor it. You have to keep an eye on it and then know what to do if you see an issue,” said Agnew.
