Published by Farmers Guide, January 2010

Grain silos cause a stir in North Suffolk

The Baker’s Dan-Corn silos at Ringsfield will hold up to 2,100t of cereals.

DANISH supplier Dan-Corn enjoyed a successful 2009 in the UK with five new stirring silos being installed by its distributor Allfarm Installations Ltd. Two of the innovative storage systems were erected at Ringsfield, near the North Suffolk coast, on a unit farmed under contract by David baker Farms Ltd.
The two model 4808 stirring silos are each capable of holding and drying up to 1,064t of grain. With a diameter of 15m, they measure 8.97m to the eaves and have an overall height of 13.41m. Each silo features a 40hp electric fan to blow air through the stored grain via a perforated floor, while a suspended pair of stirring augers thoroughly mixes the contents.
A drive-over intake pit with a capacity of 15t means both farm trailers and articulated bulkers can be emptied quickly. A 200t/hr conveyor and bucket elevator system, both supplied by Lincolnshire-based Guttridge Limited, take the grain from the intake to the top of the silos, where a top conveyor with the same capacity moves the crop to its destination.

Each silo has a 100t/hr discharge auger that can load the stored grain directly into a bulker when required. An interesting feature of the installation at Ringsfield is that the silos are about 5m apart, rather than the more usual 1m spacing. This means that two articulated bulkers can be loaded at the same time without getting in each other’s way.

The controls for silos and fixed equipment have all been installed inside a 20ft shipping container for security and to protect them from the elements. This has helped to give the whole installation a relatively small footprint for the storage capacity it supplies.

When drying is required, a small mobile diesel-fired burner and fuel tank is brought to the site, with the heat directed to each of the two silo’s fans in turn. This year the heating unit was used for just four days to dry the two full silos of wheat from 17.5% to 14.5%.

The new silos at Ringsfield replace the existing storage on the site which consisted of a 700t floor store with no drying capacity.

“Before we installed the Dan-Corn silos, we needed to haul the grain from here to another farm for drying and then bring it back for storage,” Matthew Baker of David Baker Farms told Farmers Guide. “All that was doing was adding extra costs that we could do without. Now we can store all the grain and dry it on-site, ready to go to its final destination.”

Recognising that the business’ rotation means that both Ringsfield bins will not be filled every year, the Bakers have started talking to local merchants about using any spare cereal storage capacity on the site.

“We’re well placed for the port at Lowestoft and already have a weighbridge on order to make the most of opportunities that arise,” Matthew Baker said.

David Baker Farms Ltd decided to go ahead with the new storage at Ringsfield in late 2008 and began looking at potential suppliers. A visit to Denmark by the company’s David Baker, accompanied by Allfarm Installations’ Stephen Dickons, helped convince him that the Dan-Corn system was the right one to choose.

“We were particularly impressed by the fact that the installation is virtually maintenance-free,” Matthew Baker said, “and the quality of the fixed equipment and the silos themselves means we should be looking at a lifespan of 25-40 years.

The groundworks for the project began in March 2009 and Allfarm Installations completed its part of the job just as the combine arrived at Ringsfield in mid July. Both silos were full by the end of the first week in August.