Graemetic Ltd - Ben Burgess Grain Handling

Published by Farmers Guide, October 2008

Farmers Guide has been to see two of the grain storage and handling projects completed by Ben Burgess for the 2008 harvest. Although totally different from each other, both have had a vital role to play this year. The company put up six stores this year and already has three booked for construction in 2009, including one at 3,000t.

The new Raveningham Farms grain store was almost full to capacity with dry wheat when Farmers Guide visited in early September. The 1,100t or so has all been sold, but will not start leaving the store until June 2009. Plastic coated brown roller shutters and roof were specified to match other buildings on the estate.

New store brings added
flexibility to selling grain

UNLIKE the many cereal growers that have decided to invest in new grain storage facilities as a reaction to higher prices, the decision at Sir Nicholas Bacon's Raveningham Farms was taken when prices were on the floor.
"We had quite a good crop from the 2006 harvest, but prices were at rock bottom," Estate Manager Jake Fiennes told Farmers Guide. "Sir Nicholas took the decision to invest in new facilities for the 2008 harvest because it would allow us to store all the grain we produced rather then being forced to sell it straight off the field.
"Now we can look at how prices are going and make the decision to sell forward or play the market."
Raveningham Farms put out a tender for the new 1,200t on-floor drying store in November 2007, with Norwich-based Ben Burgess winning the contract shortly after.
Groundworks started in January this year and the new building was commissioned right on schedule in the middle of June.
The new store was the first major investment in Raveningham Farm's grain handling facilities since 1972, when the continuous flow dryer was upgraded at the estate's Hall Farm (where the new building has also been constructed). And, according to Mr Fiennes, the timing of the new building couldn't have been better.
"Knowing we would have the extra storage, we committed to sell a lot of our grain forward, but with delivery starting in June next year," he said. "We were lucky to finish combining on September 1st and it's a good feeling to know we've got a building full of dry grain that'll will keep in excellent condition until it's taken out again in nine months time."
The new grain store boosted the total capacity at Raveningham Farms by almost 50% to 3,800t, at 1,200t it is significantly larger then the farm's other storage facilities, although this situation suits the cropping plan.
"We have about 380ha of combineable crops in total," Mr Fiennes said. "Wheat is grown on about 200ha, with milling wheat making up about 60ha of that. There is a further 60ha of winter and spring barley, and another 60ha of oilseed rape."
Although Raveningham Farms maintains all its own grain storage, the day-to-day job of actually growing the crops is contracted to R&R Farms.
"That was another factor in the decision to increase our storage capacity," Mr Fiennes said. "We knew that by ensuring we had enough capacity to take all the grain we produce, our contractors would keep us near the top of the list for combining as they can keep cutting longer than on a farm where the grain is sold off the field and the moisture has to be just right."
The new building - fabricated by AC Bacon - measures 20m x 24m, with an additional 6m x 6m fan house at the rear. The main air tunnel is by Pellcroft, of Lincolnshire, which also supplied the 30hp Typhoon fan that has been installed.
Heat, when required, is supplied by a two million BTU propane gas burner, fed from three external gas storage tanks. Roof fans ensure any moist air is removed from the store.
To speed up drying and maximise the store capacity, a Harvest Stirrer system has been installed that can be used in either of the two storage bays. The stirrer features two pairs of augers that operate in a zigzag pattern up and down the store. Using the stirrers means that the storage depth can be up to 12ft.
At the moment, the stirrer needs to be physically moved between the two bays, although a second auger drive unit could easily be added if it was deemed necessary.
Mr Fiennes said he was extremely pleased with how the new building had turned out.
"It was on-time and on-budget and has allowed us to take much more control over how we market out wheat," he said. "We have already bought all our fertiliser for 2009 and know our break-even price will be about Ł120/t, but out new flexibility for selling means we are looking at achieving Ł140/t and we have already sold some wheat forward at that level."

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The late start to the project at Bacton Hall Farms meant the dryer has been operating without its external cladding this year.

Dryer upgrade was perfectly timed

NORFOLK farmer Captain Jonathan Peel, of Barton Hall Farms, is developing a bit of a reputation for getting the timing of enhancements to his grain handling facility just right. Before this year's new dryer went in, his most recent big investment was a dresser nine years ago. The installation of that unit coincided with a dry year when the crop was "all needles" and just about every tonne had to be put through it.
The same is true of the new dryer that was installed by Ben Burgess in time for this year's harvest. Commissioned just in time at the end of July, it handled more than 4,000t in the following five weeks, and was still being kept busy as this issue of Farmers Guide went to press.
Captain Peel is one of the three partners in Bure Farm Services. Along with Sir John Blofeld, of Hoveton Fruit Farm, and Nicholas Deane, of Betty Deane & Sons, he is involved in an enterprise that grows about 1,400 acres of cereals each year around the village of Neatishead.
Mr Deane, who is the Managing Partner and runs Bure Farm Services on a day-to-day basis, told Farmers Guide that the partnership was responsible for 1,800 acres owned by the three partners, as well as 600 acres on neighbouring farms that was farmed under various agreements.
"About 60% of the land is sown to cereals, with typically two-thirds growing barley and the remainder to wheat, but we also grow sugar beet, peas and potatoes," he said. "As a partnership we own two combines and a sugar beet harvester, but as the grain facility is a fixed asset, it has remained the responsibility of Captain Peel.
"This arrangement has always worked well in the past and the decision to upgrade the facility this year was helped by the fact that the other partners have guaranteed to put their grain through the facility or, in a dry year, make a minimum payment for the benefit it being there if we need it."
Although Richard Craske at Ben Burgess originally quoted for the job late last year, it wasn't until March 2008 that he got the nod to start the project. The timing was tight - indeed the dryer is still to have its outer cladding fitted - but everything was up and running for the start of harvest.
"The job involved the replacing a 5t/hr dryer installed in the 1960s with a new Law-Denis SCN4/36 dryer capable of removing 5% moisture at a throughput of 21t/hr," Mr Craske said. "We had to remove the old dryer and the building it stood in and construct the new dryer on a concrete pad and link it up to the existing ducting.
"We also installed the controls for the dryer and a semi-automatic system to manage the flow of grain throughout the whole plant. The control panel can now be used to choose pre-set routes for grain intake and drying, as well as routes for outloading. All the operator has to do is make sure the valves are in the correct position press go. The control system will then start all the machines in the right order."
The two-burner, diesel dryer has been kept busy this year and had taken care of Bure Farm Services' own crop by the beginning of September.
"We dried about 4,000t of our own grain at moisture levels of between 15.4-22.5% - our target is 14.8%," he said. "Compared to last year, it made the harvest much easier. We finished the harvest a week earlier and had no distressed grain and no germination issues with the spring barley.
"Since we finished our own crop, we've been kept busy drying for neighbours and other growers that have heard about our new dryer. It has kept us busy for a few weeks, but we'll only be able to offer the service until the ground dries out - then autumn cultivations will take priority."
Mr Deane added that although the project had suffered form a couple of small teething problems, the issues had been quickly resolved by Ben Burgess and the new dryer had been a resounding success.
"No installation like this can start out perfect," he said. "The important thing is that everything was fixed to our satisfaction.
"The new dryer was a big help in that it meant we had dry grain to move and didn't have any problems with our contracted tonnage - we were able to deliver what we promised on time and at the correct moisture."

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