For farmers like Graham Carr, Douglas Stewart, and James Wheeler, a Mecmar mobile grain drier has delivered consistent performance, robust engineering and a solid return on investment:
Graham Carr, who farms at Belsay, Newcastle, bought his Mecmar D 24 T mobile drier around ten years ago. Before that, he was replacing his driers every five years – an expensive cycle of wear and tear that prompted a rethink.
“I needed something more robust and reliable,” he explained. “When I spoke to McArthur BDC, it was clear the Mecmar driers were stronger, better built, and would suffer less fatigue. That’s all proved to be true as I’m still using the same Mecmar!
“The return on investment is clear — I’ve had a decade of use without needing to replace it,” he added. “And the support from McArthur BDC is excellent. They know Mecmars inside out and can talk me through fixes over the phone – even electrical issues.”
For Douglas Stewart, who farms at Earlston near Kelso, the decision to install a Mecmar came after his previous system literally went up in smoke. “My old drier caught fire in 2017. We had to take grain to a neighbour to be dried for the entire harvest.”
In 2018, he invested in a full upgrade of his drying process, building a new grain store and installing a trench intake, an elevator and a Mecmar S 40 T mobile drier at the centre of the system – all designed to future-proof his business.
“I looked at what other farmers were using and kept hearing about Mecmar – great build quality, and delivering better grain quality with consistent results than other driers I had considered. Hearing what others said about Mecmar sold it for me,” continued Douglas.
The difference has been significant. Labour savings have been achieved; with automation, there is greater dust control provided by the aspirator system, and with simple controls, the Mecmar is easy to operate and maintain.
“Our Mecmar has been a game changer, it does what it should do every batch! The McArthur BDC team is great, sharing its grain handling and storage expertise is of enormous benefit and working with us to schedule planned maintenance is key,” Stewart added.
In 2009, James Wheeler, who farms near Market Harborough in Leicestershire, replaced his old drying floor with a Mecmar D 20 T supplied by McArthur BDC.
“When compared to other batch driers on the market, the Mecmar was clearly heavy-duty, better engineered and more resilient. We knew it would last,” he said.
As the business expanded to 950ha of combinable crops, a new grain store was built in 2022 with the existing Mecmar at its heart. Until then, the automated features of the drier had not been used, but with more crops to be harvested, there was no longer enough labour to operate it manually.
“We looked at buying a new drier but after discussions with McArthur BDC understood that refurbishing our trusty Mecmar, bringing it into the new grain storage system and taking full advantage of its automated features was the most cost-effective solution,” James continued.
Grain is now tipped into a Skandia trench intake, automatically fed into the Mecmar for drying and cooling, and then discharged via a Skandia flight and chain conveyor to the main store. A second bay provides overflow capacity or the option to dry a secondary crop and discharge to a trailer or lorry.
Now 16 years old, the Mecmar remains central to the system and continues to perform as well as ever.
“We would highly recommend that anyone looking to upgrade their existing grain store talks to McArthur BDC, they will deliver what is going to work for you,” added James.
“Plus, its after-sales service is second to none. We had an issue in the middle of the night, and when I called a McArthur BDC technician, he picked up despite it being well after midnight. By 07:30, we had a solution and the required part was swiftly delivered. They know the Mecmar inside out, and whatever the problem, they are able to solve it quickly.”