Bushmead Farm, based in Bedfordshire, has recently upgraded its grain drying processes, replacing a PTO-driven system with a new automatic, electric Mecmar SSI 28T mobile drier.
“Our old mobile drier was reaching end of life and we needed to upgrade to an automated solution providing larger capacity and improved energy efficiency,” explains Sandy Wade-Gery who farms around 400ha of arable with some forestry and grows milling winter wheat, winter barley, spring wheat, spring beans and spring oats.
After researching what was available, and speaking with McArthur BDFC at Cereals, he says that the Mecmar stood out for the build quality and ease of use.
“The Mecmar control panel can be configured to send a notification, via an email or text, to the drier’s operator when the dried grain is ready to be discharged. There is no longer the need for the operator to be constantly monitoring the drier.
“The old drier tied up a tractor and the burners were driven by gas from a bulk tank. It was noisy, and dusty. The new Mecmar is electric and uses diesel from an onboard tank to power the burners.
“It is super-quiet and has an integrated dust extraction system, two features which our drier operator, Dom Chandler, loves as sometimes you can’t hear the Mecmar working and with our old drier he needed ear defenders and a dust mask!”
Dom, along with Sandy’s son Will, found the old drier precarious and not easy to maintain, whereas they say that the Mecmar is easier to look after thanks to the centralised grease points.
It’s also fully automatic, streamlining the process. Grain is tipped directly into the loading auger via a trailer, or through a portable hopper with a telehandler.
The control panel has pre-set drying programmes, which are configured at the beginning of the harvest, and then selected so that grain is dried to the correct moisture content.
Once loading has begun, the fan and burners are only activated once the mid-level sensor is covered, and loading automatically stops when the high sensor is reached.
An aspirator removes dust and chaff as the grain circulates, and once the grain reaches the target temperature, the drier automatically starts the cooling process. Once this is complete, a moisture content meter checks if the correct moisture level has been achieved before the unloading process begins.
“The Mecmar is light years ahead of our old drier. We wanted a drier that delivered an automated solution, was efficient, quieter, reliable and would meet our drying requirements well into the future.
“McArthur’s support, which was a significant factor in our choice of the Mecmar, has been excellent and the whole system fits perfectly with our forward-thinking approach to farming.
“To keep moving forward we are looking at relocating the Mecmar into a dedicated grain store and adding a colour sorter to further enhance how we process our grain,” concludes Sandy.