Bonnington Mains speeds up harvest

case study

Bonnington Mains Farm speeds up harvest by one week with new grain processing plant from BDC Systems Ltd and partner d.m.i. Mechanical Engineers

BDC Systems Ltd working closely with d.m.i. Mechanical Engineers (now part of McArthur Agriculture) have helped Alistair Robertson, who farms a large arable unit which includes winter wheat, oil seed rape and winter barley, at Bonnington Mains Farms, Kirknewton, Midlothian, to finish last year’s harvest in record time.

“Our drier was nearing the end of its life, unable to cope with an increase in capacity and was part of an outdated system,” said Mr Robertson.

“We had to handle grain several times before the grain went into store or on to the lorry to be sold,” explained Mr Robertson. “We were tipping wet grain at other sites, then bringing it to the drier and then taking it from the drier to other sheds. All of which was extremely time consuming and an expensive use of labour.”

Having long-standing and trusted relationships with BDC Systems’, John Wilson and d.m.i.’s George Brown, Mr Robertson approached them to design and develop a new grain processing plant.

“BDC and d.m.i. have delivered a new processing plant that ‘bang-on’ delivers what we needed and it was up and running for harvest 2021,” said Mr Robertson.

Once designs were approved, the new plant building was constructed by Thorburn Group directed by Alistair Thorburn with all of the required electrics handled by John Noble of Bonnyrigg, both trusted members of the overall team involved with constructing the new plant.

From the field, grain now enters the new plant via a 14m Skandia I-line 60tph trench intake, it is then transferred to an Aagaard Aspirator (AF40) pre-cleaner before moving to a Zanin (PPR4/9) rotary cleaner. All trash and screenings are transferred to a dust house.

Once cleaned the grain is transported to and from a Svegma (SV 6/5 38tph) continuous flow drier which is fitted with a turbo cleans dust extraction system, via three Skandia I-Line 60tph belt and bucket elevators and five Skandia I-Line 60tph chain and flight conveyors. Any overflow is fed back into the system to be processed.

A Skandia 60tph belt conveyor runs along the length of the new grain store and is fitted with a tripper discharge with a key fob remote control to stop the conveyor when necessary to allow grain to be discharged where required.

The plant has been designed so that there are several options as to how the grain is handled i.e. grain can bypass the rotary cleaner and go straight to the drier or go directly from the precleaner to the store.

Because of the often wet harvest conditions in Scotland, Mr Robertson has installed BDC Systems’ Moisture Monitoring System (MMS) to ensure the moisture content (mc) of grain as, it goes into and out of the Svegma drier, is constantly monitored.

The MMS sits on the wet grain intake elevator and a grain sample is taken before it enters the drier and another sample is then taken from the dry elevator as the grain exits the drier.

The entire plant is controlled by a BDC Systems PLC control panel with a 21” touch screen. Crucially the plant can be controlled remotely via a smart phone or tablet so there is no need for anyone to be continuously at the plant.

The ability to pre-configure the MMS to automatically send text and/or email alerts, should the mc fall above or below predefined maximum and minimum levels, enables the necessary adjustments to be made remotely and swiftly to restore mc to the required levels.

Being able to adjust the grain drier settings remotely ensures that it is optimised to maintain the correct mc, helping to reduce the current spiralling energy costs.

“Despite last year being a bit of a learning curve around the new plant, harvest was easier, quicker, more productive and efficient, handling increased capacity we shaved one week off the time it would previously have taken us,” said Mr Robertson. “Last harvest was fairly dry but I can see how the new plant will be of huge benefit to us when the weather is wet.”

About BDC Systems Ltd: BDC Systems Ltd, renowned for its superior customer support and comprehensive technical service ability, offers an extensive range of grain drying, cleaning, storage, handling, ventilation, milling and mixing equipment, together with other specialised solutions. In the UK, the company represents a number of world leading manufacturers and suppliers (incl: Skandia Elevator, Svegma, Zanin, and BM Silo) providing outstanding technology, quality, durability and value for money. For more info visit: https:// BDC SystemsSystems.com/ or call: +44 (0) 1672 810851

About d.m.i Mechanical Engineers Now part of McArthur Agriculture, d.m.i. provides engineering services and agricultural machinery in the Scottish Borders, Northumberland and The Lothians.

For more info: https://www. mcarthuragriculture.co.uk/ https://dmimechanicalengineers. co.uk/ or call: +44 (0) 1573 226255