Post-harvest management: The overlooked key to success

The start of this year has been challenging for farmers, with an unprecedented amount of rainfall and less-than-ideal temperatures. Yet, despite these hurdles, most have managed to bring in a successful harvest.

However, the team at Martin Lishman Ltd, renowned specialists in crop storage, are keen to remind farmers that the journey doesn’t end once the crops are harvested and safely stored in the shed.

Post-harvest management is a critical phase that ensures we don’t throw away what we worked so hard to grow, but instead maintain the quality and longevity of the harvest.

“By focusing on effective post-harvest practices, we can support farmers in turning a good harvest into a great one, helping to safeguard their hard-earned produce and maintain its value”, explains managing director Joel Capper.

With nearly 50 years of experience in grain storage technology, the team at Martin Lishman has collaborated with farmers nationwide to develop a comprehensive range of affordable grain quality and crop storage solutions.

The team identified five key areas to focus on to enhance your post-harvest practices…

1. Add automatic control to your conditioning system

Automatic fan controllers are arguably the biggest upgrade for any existing conditioning system.

Martin Lishman Fan Controllers optimise the use of ambient air conditions by intelligently turning conditioning fans on and off, leading to substantial reductions in both cooling times and energy costs.

Additionally, they eliminate the need for frequent trips to remote storage sites to manually operate fans, ensuring that fans are never left running unnecessarily.

For 25 years, Martin Lishman says it has led the way in fan controller design, offering a diverse range of controllers tailored to meet various customer needs.

The company prides itself on its ability to control almost any fan, making its controllers a reliable choice for enhancing post-harvest efficiency and convenience.

2. Remembering to monitor temperatures

Monitoring temperatures regularly is crucial, yet many farmers tend to overlook this simple but vital task.

High temperatures can lead to grain quality issues such as infestations and hot spots, making it essential to maintain a strict monitoring schedule to ensure consistent temperatures throughout the storage facility.

Martin Lishman offers a wide range of grain temperature probes to assist with this task.

For those managing multiple remote sites, it also provides advanced automatic wireless monitoring and fan control systems to streamline the crop storage management process.

READ MORE: Four ways to monitor your grain temperatures.

3. Adding additional fans

Adding more fans to a pedestal conditioning system is a sure-fire way to improve its effectiveness.

While it’s common practice to swap fans among pedestals as the situation demands, this approach inadvertently slows down the cooling process and necessitates more frequent temperature checks.

Besides, who likes climbing the heap regularly anyway?

Using one fan per pedestal ensures the entire conditioning system is instantly available when needed and removes the likelihood of grain hotspots or forgetting to move fans around.

4. Consistent quality control

Conducting regular checks to ensure store conditions are suitable can help catch problems early.

Martin Lishman offers a variety of equipment for crop quality testing, including insect traps to detect infestations, sampling spears for moisture testing or lorry load profile sampling, ambient air measurement devices, and precise moisture meters.

Among these, the well-regarded Protimeter Grainmaster stands out, having received a major update to its smartphone app earlier this year, further enhancing the store management process.

5. Be ready for hot spots

Hot spots can unexpectedly appear, even for the most experienced store managers.

While regular temperature checks can help identify these hot spots, dealing with them effectively is crucial.

Martin Lishman’s screw-in Trouble-Dry aeration spears provide a simple and efficient solution.

By screwing the spear into the grain heap and using one of our high-output green fans, you can quickly suck cool air into the affected area, effectively tackling the hot spot.

This makes Trouble-Dry aeration spears an ideal last-minute cooling solution.

Martin Lishman says its team is standing by to help farmers improve their post-harvest strategy.

With a wide range of products in stock and a nationwide dealer network, you can start work optimising your crop store today.

For more information on Martin Lishman’s crop storage equipment, visit the Martin Lishman website. Sales enquiries can be made directly to: sales@martinlishman.com

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