Centralising the farms grain storage in one location to ensure easier transportation and improve future grain quality control has been a key priority for Norfolk based Waldersey Farms in recent years.

Established in 1981, the 5,850ha farming business based near Downham Market, has recently completed a 2-year project to increase their grain storage and drying capacity with a new purpose-built facility designed and built by Mike Bennett of Bennett and Co. (Crop Storage Engineering) Limited confirms Waldersey’s Quality Assurance Manager Rebecca Young.

Rebecca says “Annually we grow over 2,600 ha of winter wheat, 600 ha of both oilseed rape and sugar beet plus over 400ha of potatoes, so 2 new grain stores offering 15,000t of combined storage, along with new drying and cleaning facilities will enable the business to begin harvesting crops at higher moisture levels of 18%, offering us more flexibility and control during a very busy harvest period.

“Prior to the new store we harvested most of our crops below 15% moisture because we didn’t have the drying capacity, which meant we were often weather reliant at key times. Speeding the throughput of grain into the stores via improved drying and cleaning systems should also help us prevent backlogs from building up. This, in turn, means that the combines can keep working” she adds.

Trading for 25 years and having been associated with Waldersey Farms for almost 40 years, Managing Director of Bennett and Co. Mike Bennett confirms that the building work, which commenced in January 2021 during the Covid pandemic, offered some significant geological challenges due to the farm’s geographic location.

Mike says” To overcome the soft fenland soils we sank over 1,000 concrete piles at depths of up to 8m to support the combined weight of the silo’s, driers and stores. The new storage and drying facility is made up of a grain conveying system, rated at 150t/hr based on wheat crops, and begins with a mechanically emptied, shallow surface intake pit.

“The grain comes in through the intake pit and is then transported via 1 of 4 elevators to an aspirator pre-cleaner which removes chaff and dust. The newly cleaned grain then goes to 1 of 3 x 500t hoppers, then into a 90t/hr capacity drier and finally into 1 of 2 storage buildings with 5,000t and 10,000t capacities via a second conveyor which runs across the top of the 3 grain silos.

“A belt conveyor with a tripper system ensures that grain is then evenly distributed across the floor of each store making a continuous heap” he adds.

Mike confirms that in comparison to the building construction challenges, the eventual decision on the choice of monitoring system for temperature and humidity control of the stored grain was a relatively straightforward one.

He says” I’ve been designing and constructing grain stores for many years now and the logical choice has almost always been the WTM smart grain storage system, designed and manufactured by specialist crop storage equipment manufacturer Robydome.

Their latest WTM system is now able to manage up to 16 grain stores.  All temperature data from the companies range of grain probes which are positioned within the grain pile, including ambient humidity and temperature, are fed back to the WTM control box located in the operations room and is then relayed immediately – in real time, to a secure web page which Rebecca accesses on her phone allowing her to check and implement any changes to the temperature and condition of in-store grain at any time, day or night, from any location.

“The WTM is an intelligent, instinctive system that’s easy to set up with all the data stored in the control box for increased security. The real beauty of the Robydome system is that you don’t need a desk top computer in the control room, so any risks to a computer from dust or humidity are eliminated with all access via a secure web page available to the operator through any device with a web browser.

“The software on the WTM is excellent and easy to use, with the latest WTM-2 model boasting more features and increased data storage that’s even faster and more reliable.
 

 “On reporting, the WTM-2 also produces more detailed grain quality reports that show readings from all the grain sensors in a store, rather than just a summary of the highest, lowest and average temperature readings. The ability to control fan operation remotely and more precisely by pre-setting temperature and moisture parameters definitely boosts grain quality and should certainly enable Waldersey Farms to make significant energy savings reducing their storage costs over time “concludes Mike.