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Dryer Boosts Profits For Commercial Hay GrowersThe old saying
says,Make hay when the sunshines, but two Barrhead, Alberta
brotherswith a commercial hay operation decidedthey didnt want to
wait for perfect weatherany more.
Ken and Arnold Assenheimer have 600acres of hay, 400 of which
are used to growtimothy for the export market. Last year
theydesigned and built their own hay dryer, de-voting 1,000 man
hours to the project.
After one season using their home-builthay dryer, the
Assenheimers say theyrepleased with the results of their
$100,000investment. They expect the coming seasonto be even more
successful.
The gross return on export timothy is upto $370 per acre, which
we think is betterthan anything else you can do on the farm,Ken
explains.Were paid up to $190 per tonwhich works out to $5.25 for a
60-lb. bale.
The brothers drying system is housed in a40 by 60-ft. metal
building with a concretefloor inset with metal grates made
fromoilfield pipe. They based their design on an-other dryer they
went to look at near Toronto,Ontario, but made some of their own
modi-fications. In addition to farming, Arnold isan engineer.
The building houses twin dryers capableof simultaneously drying
800 bales each (atotal of 10 160-bale wagon loads). Its also
possible to operate only one dryer at a time.A bale wagon
unloads the stacks onto the
floor grates, and when the unit is filled tocapacity, tarps are
lowered along the sidesof the stacks. A vacuum is created by a 15
hpaxial fan in the pit below each of the 800-bale stacks and this
pulls the tarps tightlyagainst the stack. A 3 hp axial fan and a
1.2million BTU natural gas heater are turnedon to supply 140 degree
F air to the plenumabove the stack. Heated air is drawn down
through the nine-layer stack, effectively dry-ing it at a cost
of $10 to $12 per ton.
Depending on the ambient air tempera-ture, we can bring hay that
was at 20 percentmoisture down to 12 percent in 16 to 20 hoursof
drying, explains Ken. Then we turn theheat off and blow ambient air
through for aone to two hour cooling down period. At thisrate, the
dryer can be filled every day, effec-tively drying 40 tons of 20
percent moisturehay each day.
The Assenheimers say the dryer allowsthem to produce a larger
amount of consis-
tently high quality hay.In the world of export timothy, color
is
everything and by using the dryer, we haveless sun bleaching,
plus the hay is dust-free.The dryer allows us to increase the
amountof premium hay we produce from 35 per-cent of our production
to 60 percent, Kensays.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, KenAssenheimer, Frontier Forage,
Site 3, Box52, R.R. 3, Barrhead, Alberta, Canada T7N1N, (ph 780
674-4317; fax 780 674-5178;E-mail: [email protected])
Building houses twin dryers capable ofsimultaneously drying 800
bales each.
Vacuum is created by a 15 hp axial fan in pit below each
800-bale stack. A 3 hp axialfan and 1.2 million BTU natural gas
heater supply heated air to plenum above stack.
In-Field Bale-Drying SystemThere are a lot of benefits to big
square balesbut one drawback is that theyre packed sotight that hay
must be really dry to makequality bales, says custom operator
BobHolborn, Palmerston, Ontario, who workedtogether with a farm
equipment manufacturerto come up with a new in-field drying
systemthat lets him bale at moisture contents of upto 30
percent.
Holborn started experimenting with theidea several years ago but
it wasnt untillast summer, when a customer had problemswith heat
buildup in high-moisture bales,that he put the idea to the test. It
worked sowell on problem bales, he used the systemthe rest of the
summer.
The idea is to stack big square bales intostooks of the kind
sometimes used forsmall square bales. He stands the stookstightly
together, side by side so theres anopen tunnel underneath. Then he
puts astandard grain drying fan at one end of thetunnel and blocks
off the other end with acouple extra bales. Air (unheated)
blowsthrough the tunnel and is forced up throughthe bales.
Holborn says a 100 to 150-ft. line of balesneeds to be aerated
periodically for aboutthree weeks, depending on the initialmoisture
level.
He worked with Oscar Frey at Horst
Welding in Listowel, Ontario, to develop astooker to handle the
bales. It makes astook of five bales so that the stack onlytouches
the ground along the edges of thetwo bottom bales. The unit
attaches to atractor 3-pt. or can be towed behind by apickup or
tractor. It has two support wheelson back. Hydraulic cylinders drop
the sidearms to the ground. Bumper bars pack balestightly end to
end as each stack is added tothe line of bales. Bales are placed on
thestooker by a front-end loader. Horst Weldingplans to build a
limited number of units thisyear. They sell for $3,500
(Canadian).
Holborn notes that he has used bothelectric and pto-powered
dryer fans. He saysyou can also use a silage blower to createthe
air flow. He recommends keeping tarpshandy in case of rain.
Otherwise, the balesdo not have to be covered.
This year Holborn and Frey plan to doadditional testing of the
system to identifywhat moisture contents work best, how longit
takes to dry a certain number of bales,what length of stack works
best, etc.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, OscarFrey, Horst Welding, RR3,
Listowel, OntarioN4W 3G8 Canada (ph 519 291-4162; fax 519291-53880;
E-mail: [email protected]).
A grain drying fan or silage blower is used to blow air through
the tunnel under thebales.
Holborn has successfully dried a line of bales 150 ft. long.
Tarp is only needed as pro-tection from rain.
A front-end loader is used to place bales on this stooker. Side
arms lower hydrauli-cally to the ground to unload.
