J&S Hay has invested in a second Mecmar mobile drier, sourced from McArthur BDC, to increase drying capacity for heritage Bere barley and certified seed barley.
The company, which farms 93ha of its own ground and rents a further 130ha in Birsay, Orkney, states that the purchase will help improve efficiency.
“My mother, Sheena, and two brothers Stevie and Duncan, farm beef, sheep and arable,” said Marty Hay. “Our contracting business J&S Hay, one of the biggest in Orkney, grows 60ha of Bere barley, 30ha of certified seed barley, 30ha of feed barley and a small area of oats. We are the most northerly growers of certified seed barley.”
Bere barley is grown for the Birsay Heritage Trust, under stubble-to-stubble contracts with growers that J&S Hay sources.
“Not only do we dry our own grain, we also dry barley and oats for local farmers and we needed to increase our drying capacity with a more automated solution.
“We already had a PTO-driven Mecmar which we loved but we had to switch the drier on, set the temperature and regularly check the moisture content of the grain,” said Marty.
“Checking the moisture content is key for us. Bere is a very valuable crop and it takes a long time to dry and must not be over-dried, so regular monitoring is essential. The same applies to our certified barley seed, which we sell to local farmers.”
Once the grain was dried, the company previously had to manually set the Mecmar to discharge and then turn the drier and tractor off. This proved to be time-consuming.
“We were keen to stick with Mecmar as our existing drier had served us very well. Following discussions with McArthur BDC we decided to purchase a used automatic electric Mecmar D 18 T with built-in aspirator cleaner,” he added.
“The Mecmars really do hold their second-hand value which is a benefit for both buyers and sellers!”
Two members of the McArthur BDC team travelled with the new drier, which was moved by lorry to Aberdeen before being loaded on the ferry. They then spent two days installing the unit.
Now, the stored grain is taken from the bunkers using a telehandler and loaded into a hopper which feeds the electric intake auger. Using the control panel, the temperature can be set and the grain is automatically dried to the correct moisture content.
A built-in aspirator automatically removes dust and chaff from the grain.
Once dried, the machine discharges the grain into a bunker. Seed barley is placed in storage bins while the Bere barley is stored in tote bags, with clear labelling to avoid cross-contamination.
Some of the Bere barley grown by J&S Hay goes to Barony Mill, Orkney’s only water mill, run by the Birsay Heritage Trust, where it is stone ground into Beremeal which is used by most Orkney bakeries.
The majority of the Hay’s Bere barley goes back to the mainland (just north of Aberdeen) to be malted and then returns to a local Orkney distillery to produce whisky.
“We are very happy with the electric Mecmar D 18 T. It has delivered the extra capacity we need. When we are at our busiest, both Mecmar driers are running. By drying different crops in each we are able to save time by not having to clean out one drier between batches.
“The automated Mecmar has also helped us to reduce a significant amount of man hours as we can just leave it to get on with drying the grain with no need for us to regularly monitor the moisture content of the grain. We can get on with other jobs.
“This automation has been very welcome as it has also helped us to reduce late nights during harvest!” concluded Marty.
For more information go to www.mcarthurbdc.co.uk