I'm putting up several of the large 16'6" diameters round cribs. Im concern with the corn keeping in these cribs.What moisture should the corn be for safe storage?I also thought about installing an aeration fan and blowing air through the middle of the crib.Have any of you seen something like that work? If so, how well did it work?What moisture level could I fill the crib with a fan installed?
I assume you are talking about the "squirrel cage" style round cribs. We try to pick at 19 percent moisture or lower. We try to pick before the moisture drops below 16 percent to avoid too much shelling. I suppose you could crib it at a higher moisture, but we haven't tried it. Ear corn will keep very well in those things--we use two of them. The only drawback is that eventually you have to scoop ear corn, as opposed to a straight crib with a recessed channel that you can push ear corn into.
For ventilation, at a minimum, make sure you have the tunneling row placed down the center from the door to the back of the crib. Tunneling is a row of inverted u-shaped units made from the same welded rod material as the sides of the crib. Besides ventilation, it also serves as a place to put your corn drag for unloading. Put the tunneling in place with a couple of 16 foot boards inside it to keep it straight when the ear corn starts dropping on it. Fill the crib, let it settle for a couple of weeks, then pull out the boards and clean out the shell corn that has dropped into the tunnel.
Some folks use vertical "chimneys" for ventilation in these cribs, as well. We have not found them necessary. Perhaps someone else can share their experience with those. We have not found aeration fans necessary, either, with the proper moisture management through timing and tunnels.
In addition to 2 squirrel cages and 2 straight cribs, we used to fill several uncovered snow fence piles with ear corn. These were temporary structures, built as needed from year to year. The only permanent things were two telephone poles for the front. The floors were planks placed directly on the ground, but we still used tunnels in them. I mention them only as a comparison to the squirrel cages for maintaining corn quality. They did not fare as well, and we always used the ear corn in them first. I think the main issue was that they did not keep snow and rain off of the top of the pile like a squirrel cage did. I recommend filling the squirrel cage to the top so no rain or snow can blow in on top of the corn (at least until you start emptying it).
These comments are based on my family's experience. I am sure there are other ways to do it that are equally or more effective. I would be interested in hearing the experience of others on this topic.
Growing up we had three round metal corn cribs. All three had ventilation tunnels running the length of the bottom of the cribs as well as having a vertical chimmney. We never had a problem with the corn spoiling. There always was a snowfence crib setup for a few extra loads.
Dad picked ear corn probably around that 18-19 percent range. I guess we never had a moisture tester except for the very specific and highly scientific technique of taking an ear of corn and twisting the kernals while listening and feeling how they were on the ear. If that method did prove accurate enough, the fail-safe technique to see if it was time to pick corn was if the crib was empty!
Most years my corn will not be under 20%. I already fill a 6' wide straight crib but want to add these round cribs. They do have the ventilation tunnels and vertical chimneys. My thought was to build a duct to the center vertical chimney and force in air by a fan. Seed companies will force air through the seed ear corn to dry it so why can't I do the same thing. I was hoping in be able to pick corn in the 22-23% range.
I don't see why it cannot be done, but we have not used or needed forced air. It seems like the open sides of the squirrel cages in combination with the looseness of ear corn might not allow forced air to get too far through the corn before it ran out of force. Would harvesting that wet affect feed quality? I mean, sure, cattle will eat it, but will it lose some nutritional value? I would like to hear from some of the more experienced folks on these two issues.
I think the best thing you can do with those 16' Behlen cribs is to put them someplace where the wind can blow thru them no matter what direction it is blowing from. Then you should be able to put 20-21% corn in them with little or no problems. We used to put 19-20% corn in the 2 we had years ago and it worked OK where we had the cribs at the time. Then several years later (after the trees has gotten bigger) I put 16.5% corn in them and shelled 16.5% corn out of them (with some mold damage) the following summer. That was the last time we used them. The cribs I use now are about 15' in diameter. They are over at my neighbor's and where they are placed the wind can blow thru them pretty much any direction. I have put low 20's corn in them with no problem.
-- Edited by jdtom on Saturday 14th of January 2012 10:00:05 PM
I agree 100% with Tom. That is the secret to drying and keeping corn in any crib. I would strongly suggest taking your wire drag tunnels straight to the scrap iron pile. Save yourself a whole lot of backache and build your crib floors with drag tunnels right in the concrete. It will take more time and money to build but it'll be well worth it. As far as feed quality goes, the only difference between 20% corn and 15% corn is that the wetter stuff is diluted with 5% water. The problems start when the corn is wet enough to heat and spoil. This will destroy the proteins.
we have put corn in the pole crib around 24 % and in the round cribs around 24%and lower and never had to much mold problem and shell out around 15 to 16 % and hual to town
