Moisture Monitoring During Grain Storage by Ergson GmbH

Grain is a staple food of the world's populaon. The demand for grain is increasing steadily due to the growing world populaon. Providing people with high quality food is a strategic and important issue for a country. It plays a significant role in the growth and future of our populaon. Grain is nutrious and low in water which makes it suitable for storage. However, during storage there is a high risk of quality losses. It is esmated that up to a third of the grain harvested is lost before consumpon and sales. Aer harvest, grain connues to ripen. Moisture and thermal energy is released while the grain is stored in a closed container. This encourages the growth of mold fungus and insects. The two indicators temperature and humidity influence each other with regard to the shelf life and quality maintenance of grain. Warm and humid condions during storage promote early germinaon, outgrowth and infestaon of mold and microorganisms. An increase in microorganisms means that the grain spoils rapidly. Fungi are a big problem because they produce toxins. In order to enable a long-term storage without quality losses, the grain must be kept in an ideal state. Monitoring physical quanes in the silo is of great importance in order to make an exact statement about the condion of the grain and to introduced prevenve measures at the right me. Maintaining a certain humidity content inside the storage bin is important to prevent rong and fungal aacks. When a moisture development is recognized early, moisture-reducing measures such as drying, cooling and aerang can be iniated to protect the grain quality. Sensor monitoring systems for grain silos help to keep the grain healthy and in good quality condion over long me periods. Our GrainManagement System is a connuous temperature and humidity monitoring system. The monitoring system consists of sensor cables and devices measuring the condions inside the storage bin. Sensor cables are suspended from the silo roof and are distributed evenly within the storage bin. The cable soluon allows the temperature and humidity values to be measured at different heights of the stored grain bulk during the enre storage period. The sensor cables are protected by an outer protecon tube. They are built to various lengths to match the silo height. The spacing between the sensors may be a standard distance or customized to match the installaon. The sensors are polled individually for their data. A Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) operates as an interface converter to digital sensors and other analog or digital signals. It is a unique equipment ideal as a signal converter between site sensors and PC. The measured data can be read from a local site control room or with a mobile device from anywhere via cloud. Our program informs you via computer, tablet or smartphone with alarms at the right me to protect your grain. Grain rong can thus be detected at an early stage. Pre-warning systems and informaon messages to the user offer great advantages in terms of economy, health and environmental protecon. Spoilage, breaking and shrinking of grains are avoided. The environment is protected with less waste, less use of chemicals and energy savings. Contaminaon of the grain can be reduced or even avoided by predicve monitoring.

GrainSense – sales has started

Affordable by individual farmers: GrainSense has aer years of development work and a long waing me of the first commercial version of their product, started sales and released the first batch of 30 grain quality measurement devices for the Swedish, Finnish and Balc markets. GrainSense is the first grain quality measurement device that is affordable and field durable enough to be owned and used by farmers. The end-user internaonal sales price is 3.900 euro (tax 0%), including device, carry bag, measure cup, cap and 1 year warranty. A personal user account is needed for the use of the device; 250 euro/year (tax 0%), includes 4 grain species (inially available are wheat, barley, oats and rye, rapeseed will follow), updates and calibraons, unlimited data storage and possibility to share the measurement results. “A lot of effort has been put to finalize the design, securing the infrastructure and ramping up the producon including an intensive tesng of the device, says GrainSense CEO Edvard Krogius. We are very excited and pleased to deliver the first devices to our commied community of farmers, Edvard Krogius connues.”

Big interest among the farming community: The GrainSense soluon has been developed in close collaboraon with individual farmers and farming organizaons. The feedback from farmers has confirmed that currently there are no suitable tools available to support farm-level decision-making in order to manage and opmize the protein content of crops. Bringing the grain quality measurement pracce to the farm level: GrainSense has developed the world's first truly hand-held device for grain quality measurement. The GrainSense hand-held device measures the protein, moisture, oil and carbohydrate content of cereals and other crops – i.e. key determinants of the harvest value and processing cost. The device is baery powered, requires only a few grains and takes just seconds to make each measurement. The service includes a mobile applicaon with GPS posioning and cloud connecon, which supports a suite of valueadded services for improving producvity and profitability. Laboratory accuracy from field in seconds: For the first me, farmers, seed producers and plant breeders will be able to rapidly measure the key parameters of their crops in the field (even before harvesng) and make decisions that can significantly improve their producvity and profitability. The device will also enable meat producers to control and adjust the protein content of feed in real me, which can have a major impact on profitability.

The unique features of GrainSense are: It is 5 mes smaller than closest alternaves and baery-powered, and therefore convenient to use in field condions. It is at least 3 mes less expensive than closest alternaves. It takes just 30 seconds to make a measurement, including sample loading. It is the only device that can be used before harvest. Anyone can use it without special training. It will include the most comprehensive package of value-added soware services providing aconable insights instead of plain data. It has a potenal payback me shorter than one harvesng season.

Sales through distributors: GrainSense distributor partner Berner Ltd has started the sales and introduced the device on the Swedish, Finnish and Balc markets. “Wherever the GrainSense soluon has been introduced, we have seen exceponally strong interest in tesng and pre-ordering, says Kalle Erkkola, Head of Division, Berner Ltd. We are as well very excited indeed to see this device in field use, connues Kalle Erkkola.”

For more info visit: hp://www.grainsense.com