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Temperature Monitoring and Aeration Strategies for Stored Wheat in the Central Plains

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  026116,  2002 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.9778) @2002
Authors:   Mark E. Casada, Frank H. Arthur, Hulya Akdogan
Keywords:   Grain Cooling, Insect control, Grain Storage, Aeration controller, Moisture Content

Two aeration strategies were compared to non-aeration in field tests of stored wheat in Kansas. An additional summer aeration cycle before the usual two autumn cycles produced better temperatures for insect control in the grain. Both aeration strategies yielded much better temperatures for insect control than did the naturally cooled, non-aerated bin (ca. 3,500 bu bin). In two years of tests with wheat aerated with low airflow rates in summer immediately after harvest, there were sufficient hours with air temperatures below 24C (75F) to cool the grain with an airflow rate of 0.11 m3/min-t (0.1 cfm/bu). However, during one year, high humidities during these nighttime periods of low temperatures resulted in final temperatures higher than 24C due to the heating effect when the grain was slightly rewetted by the high humidity air. These results indicate the importance of looking at both temperature and humidity together to evaluate whether weather conditions are acceptable for adequate aeration cooling, especially during summer aeration when air temperatures are near the upper acceptable limit.

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