30 Years Ago
Thursday, August 1, 2024
filed under: Historical
Versatility & Integration / By Don Lilleboe — “What use does a dryland farmer in central North Dakota have for a bunch of aluminum irrigation pipes? If you’re Mark Mullenberg, you use the five-inch-diameter pipes at sunflower harvest to convey seeds from your dryer holding bin to nearby long-term storage bins.
“Those irrigation pipes are part of a well-integrated sunflower drying/storage system on the Mullenberg farm near Carrington, N.D. — a system designed to help ensure both the quality of seeds being delivered to market and the number of dollars received for that crop.
“The Mullenberg system, which has been in place for more than a decade, begins when their field trucks dump the just-combined seeds (mostly confections) into the DMI rotating screener used to take out pieces of pulp, dried florets, weed seeds and other trash. Confection seeds don’t move through the screener as quickly as the smaller oil-type sunflower, Mullenberg points out, “but we can generally screen a 600-bushel tandem truck in about 20 minutes,” he says.
“From the screener, the sunflower seeds are angered into the adjacent Vertex 650 column dryer. Mullenberg appreciates the dryer’s capacity on his confection ’flowers: typically about 1,100 bushels per hour. [Rotating screens on the intake side of the dryer’s fans] remove much of the lint and remaining fines not deleted by the rotary screener, thus providing additional insurance against a possible fire.
“After drying, Mullenberg typically augers the sunflower into the 1,800-bushel holding bin. There’s a K-valve on the holding bin, so he can dump directly from the bin into a truck if the seeds are not headed for long-term storage.
“Sunflower seeds moving from the holding bin to storage bins are transported with a Walinga pneumatic conveyor. An in-line hose pulls the seeds from the bottom of the holding bin into the pneumatic conveyor. . . . Seeds heading into storage are pushed pneumatically through the irrigation pipe to the appropriate bin.”
The Grade Is Only As Good As the Sample / By Don Lilleboe — “Impartiality and credibility are valuable assets in any business; but they’re downright essential in the grain inspection sector.
“Steve Adams learned that long ago. The president of the North Dakota Grain Inspection Service (NDGIS) is a 25-year veteran of grain grading and analysis. His Fargo-based company, like most similar services in other crop production regions, counts not only elevators, processors and farmers among its clients, but also insurance companies and accounting firms. The bottom-line objective is the same for all these parties: to gain as true a picture as possible of the value of the load of grain from which samples are being graded.
“Of course, the inspection service’s answers don’t always please the customer. Reports on dockage, test weight, oil percentage, heat damage or other grading factors may carry unexpected and — depending upon whether one is buying or selling — economically painful news. ‘We’re unique in that we have customers [to whom] we must sometimes give bad news,’ Adams relates. ‘They don’t like it — and then we turn around and charge them for that unpleasant information!’
“Though questions periodically arise regarding the accuracy of grain testing, Adams says one central reality should be kept in mind: ‘Whether it’s a farm sample, a hopper car or a truck heading to the processing plant, we use the same standards and procedures on each sample.’
“With the exception of confection sunflower — which is graded according to guidelines drawn up by a committee under the auspices of the National Sunflower Association — those standards and procedures have been established by the Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS). Any inspection service licensed by FGIS must adhere rigidly to the agency’s rules, and there is a comprehensive system of checks in place to ensure compliance.”
Keeping the Stalk Ogre at Bay / By Don Lilleboe — “Exceptional stalk strength is usually considered a desirable attribute for a sunflower hybrid. But there is that harvest time moment — right after the plant’s seed-filled head and upper stem are separate from the ground-rooted base — when a hard, tough stalk takes on negative implications.
“Within an instant, those decapitated stalks turn into potential menaces, poised to gouge the tires of the very combines whose hoppers are filling with freshly harvested seeds. The problem can be particularly damaging for combines with row-crop headers or others set at a low cutting height, as the resulting stalk is often just the right height to land a direct jab into the oncoming tire…Tractors performing fall or spring tillage in harvested sunflower fields may also bear the bite, as do tractors and drills direct-seeding into standing stubble on old sunflower ground.
“So what’s a farmer to do? For Oriska, N.D., neighbors Maynard Satrom and the Winters — father Richard and sons Steve and Mark — the answer has been simple, cheap and effective: hang a pipe from chains in front of tractor and combine tires and let that pipe inflict offending sunflower stalks with a dose of their own medicine.
“Satrom and the Winters have successfully employed their method of ‘stalk neutering’ for a number of years. They’ve bolted a basic iron frame — including extending cradle arms — on the front of their 4WD tractors. A short length of thick chain is attached to each of the two arms, with the chains’ other end connected to a heavy well pipe running the entire width of the tractor and tires, be they duals or triples.
“The pipe — which is sometimes filled with sand or gravel or added weight — is about four or five inches off ground level….
“And the concept works equally well on the combine. The Winters use two shorter lengths of pipe on their combines — just wide enough to fit the tire pattern on each side, Steve indicates ….Though relatively short compared to the tractor-borne version, these pipes are still heavy enough — especially when filled with sand or gravel — to bend the sunflower stalks before they can poke the combine tires.”
NSA Receives Market Promotion Funds — “The National Sunflower Association has received $1.4 million in market promotion program funding from USDA for the 1994/95 marketing year. Some of the funds will be used to promote U.S. confection sunflower … in Germany, Spain, Korea and Mexico. [Another] portion of the USDA market promotion funding will be used by NSA to promote the consumption of sunflower oil in Mexico.”