Last year’s harvest filled prairie grain bins with a variety of grades, often from the same field.
This can cause big problems, expecially when all those grades end up in the same bin and the samples are likely to rate the lowest grade.
That’s the situation Brent Genest found himself in this fall on his 6,000 acre farm near Harris, Sask.
“It was a weird year from start to finish,” Genest said.
“For us, we were short of rain for a while. When we got rain in July, we got so much we had sloughs in the wheat fields. Then Jack Frost dropped by in August and hit 60 percent of our ground. With the combination of cool temperatures and extra moisture, a lot of our crops were lighter than they should have been.”
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Genest said his wheat yielded 27 bushels per acre, with some of it 61 lb. bu. weight and other samples 57 lb.
“It was so erratic,” he said.
One of his field’s graded No. 2 amber durum while a kilometre away one of his father’s wheat fields graded feed.
Genest was determined not to ruin good grain by mixing it with damaged grain. He decided to leave the low spots for last after the higher quality product was in the bin.
However, in one field the plan didn’t work.
“I had a 40 acre field where the drill screwed up and I had to go back in June to reseed. That turned out to be the most gorgeous, nicest red wheat you’ve ever seen. We went in with the combine and we were putting 60 bu. straw into the front, but when we hit the low spots it turned out to be nothing but bird feed. No grain in the hopper. Just junk.
“By then, everything was mixed together and the damage was done, so we just binned that field separately and dealt with it later.”
Genest figures he segregated and binned about 22,000 nuisance bushels of No. 4 or Canada Feed mixed in with marginal No. 3 wheat.
If it all sold as feed grade, it would fetch only 83 cents per bu. Anything he could extract to sell as No. 3 would fetch $ 2.21 per bu. It was worth trying, so he rented a cleaner to see how many No. 3 bushels he could salvage from the mess.
Genest paid $55 an hour for an Eliminator cleaner from Flaman Rentals. After expenses and four days of work, the cleaner put an extra $10,000 in his pocket.
He started with a bin that held 3,200 bu. with 14-16.5 percent damage and a bu. weight of 60.5 lb. dirty. It would have sold for No. 4 red or Canada Feed. He screened a load directly into his tandem with a pup and headed to the elevator at Rosetown, Sask.
“I told the elevator manager what I was up to and he said, ‘sure, let’s try it. Let’s go with it and see what you can do with that cleaner.’ “
The first load came in at 9.8 percent damage and 62.7 lb. per bushel.
“So we not only dropped the damage to slide in at No. 3, but we also upped the bushel weight. No. 3 has to be 10 percent or less damaged kernels. We just snuck under the line. The elevator agent was happy and I was happy because I saw how this machine could make money for me.”
Of the three loads from that bin, the cleanest was 9.6 percent and the closest to the line was 10 percent even. He admits that is cutting it pretty close, but said farmers and grain buyers play by the same rules and it’s up to farmers to make the rules work in their favour. Cleaning grain on the farm is one way to do that.
“I’d have been happier if every load had been right at 10 percent. I hate to give anything away to the grain companies.”
Genest said the math is simple.
“A 1,206 bu. load at the Canada Feed price puts $1,000.98 into my pocket. Screened, that load gave me 1,106 bu. of No. 3 at $2.21 per bu. The total value of the clean grain plus the 100 bu. of Canada Feed is $2,527. Next I subtract $220 to pay the four hours on the cleaner. I put an extra $1,306 in my pocket by cleaning one load of grain.”
He cleaned close to eight full loads, which resulted in more than $10,000 extra money for those four days.
“One of the loads wasn’t quite full and we lost about half a day with an electric motor problem, but it still gives us an overall net gain of $10,000.”
The cleanout graded Canada Feed at 50.8 lb. per bu. and sold for 83 cents. Again, he was cutting it close because the Canadian Wheat Board requires 50 lb. bu. weight.
“If my cleanout had been heavier, I could maybe get a couple bucks a bu. On the open market it must weigh 58 lb. but that’s a minor thing. My main concern was shipping No. 3 and selling it as 83 cent feed.”
The four days were a busy stop and go process. He would clean a full load, stop the machinery and haul to the elevator, often bringing bagged samples of the grain he was about to clean next.
“We all wanted to see how well this idea was working. The agent worked closely with us just to see how much we could accomplish. Probably not every elevator manager is going to be that co-operative.”
On the first day of cleaning, he started with a No. 12 round hole on the top and No. 6 slotted screens on the bottom.
This didn’t provide the results he was looking for, so early the first day he switched to 13 round hole on the top and 6.5 slotted on the bottom. The first time he switched it took about 15 minutes. After trying faster and slower speeds, he settled in at a rate of 280 bu. per hour.
Although Genest is impressed with the Eliminator’s capabilities, he realized it couldn’t perform miracles. That gorgeous field of late-seeded wheat was a good example.
“The 2,500 bu. we segregated from that field was a challenge. It started out 20 percent damaged because of the low spots we had driven into. Even after cleaning, we still only got feed quality, so we did the cleaning for nothing. I don’t think it’s worth bothering with if the grain is up around 20 percent damage.
“But if you’ve got borderline Canada Feed, now you’re talking about putting some serious financial gain into your pocket.
“It can’t always work this well. Some tests were real good and others not so good. You don’t know what you can accomplish until you clean a batch and put it in your truck and haul it to your elevator.”
The Eliminator cleaner that Genest rented costs $47,000, including the diesel powered generator.
Without the generator, the price drops to $41,000. However, Genest is not sure he can justify buying it by himself.
“I went into this project with 22,000 bu. of questionable wheat. If I could have upgraded that entire volume to No. 3, then I could have paid for half the machine in one year.
“A producer could justify buying a cleaner in this price range if you went in with one or two partners. You use it in the winter when time is not at a premium, so it’s feasible to share it.
“The other factor is that you can clean peas for seed at a rate of probably 350 bu. per hour with a machine like this. We seed peas at three bu. per acre, so there’s a lot of peas that need to be cleaned every winter.”
