Heatwave fuels demand for grain cooling systems

Crop storage specialists Martin Lishman say more customers are opting to increase the cooling power in their stores following the summer weather.

Ensuring optimal ventilation of stored crops with a powerful airflow will help drive temperatures down as fast as possible, says the company, which has almost 50 years experience in grain storage technology

A suitable automatic fan control system can be equally as important in taking advantage of low ambient temperatures to cool grain and will significantly reduce the energy needed to do so.

The company’s products include the award-winning Barn Owl Wireless automatic fan control and crop monitoring system and the Pile-Dry Pedestal and Fan crop cooling system.

Martin Lishman Pile-Dry pedestals are one of the fastest vertical crop cooling system on the market, operating at 20% above the required rate.

Crop quality

Pile-Dry pedestals cools grain straight off the combine to avoid insects and harmful moulds.

Fans suck cool air through the stored crop and extract the warm air out of the heap to achieve safe storage conditions. 

The Pile-Dry pedestal design is modular, so it can be placed in almost any existing grain store, even at depths deeper than 17m. This enables farmers and store managers to customise the system to suit their own individual requirements.

Martin Lishman describes  its Green Pile-Dry low volume grain cooling fans as the ultimate in fast cooling performance.

With highly efficient IE3 motors and uprated design to ensure long lasting reliability, when used in conjunction with Pile-Dry pedestals farmers can cool crops faster and more energy efficiently while preserving crop quality in all sizes of store and all bulk stored crops.

“One of the simplest ways to improve the effectiveness of a pedestal cooling system is to use more fans,” says managing director Gavin Lishman.

Hotter weather

“It is not uncommon to swap fans between pedestals when required, but this slows down the cooling process and requires more frequent temperature checks.

“Using one fan per pedestal ensures the cooling power is instantly available when needed and significantly reduces the possibility of hot spots in the grain or forgetting to move fans around.”

With higher-than-normal summer temperatures, frequently monitoring the grain to ensure the temperature is consistent throughout the store is crucial to preventing any form of deterioration.

An automatic fan controller can bring many benefits. Automatically turning cooling fans on and off to make the best use of ambient air conditions ensures the fastest cooling possible but can also save at least 40% of energy costs.