Customer Testimonial
<< Back to MapPressure Curing® Wheat and Corn in Kansas
The air coming out of there was nice and cool,and it blew that moisture right out of there - it just amazed me.
Ed Goetz
Grainfield, KS
Cutting down Respiration Losses
Ed Goetz grows winter wheat, dryland and irrigated corn near the town of Grainfield in northwest Kansas. Now in his third year of Pressure Curing, Goetz is impressed with the various benefits he has seen to date.
Initially, Goetz’s motivation for investing in Pressure Cure® was quite simple: "We wanted a system to get our dryland corn off early so we could put our winter wheat back in." Due to the nature of the climate and growing season, most producers in this part of the country field dry their corn and haul it directly to an elevator. This can and does delay wheat planting, which can have a negative effect on stand establishment. Furthermore,Goetz was finding it difficult to secure feedlot contracts for his grain which would have meant more reliance upon expensive elevator drying and storage. Goetz addressed these concerns in 1998 with the erection of three 36’ (15,000 BU) Pressure Cure® systems. Having seen the performance and benefits of the Pressure Cure® system firsthand, Goetz doubled his curing capacity with the addition of three more 15,000 Pressure Cure® bins in 1999.
Goetz’s first experience with his Pressure Cure® system came in the summer of ‘98, using it to cure down some wet wheat. Goetz recalls the day he opened up the first field - "We cut some wheat and put it in there at 22-23% moisture. It was wet." When checking the bin a day or so later, Goetz was impressed with how fast the harvest heat had been pushed out of the bin, as well as nine to ten points of moisture. "The air coming out of there was nice and cool, and it blew that moisture right out of there - it just amazed me." The balance of the bin was filled with 17% moisture. Within a few days the entire bin cured out, leaving Goetz with 15,000 bushels of plump, heavy, dark wheat. "What I like so well is the dark kernels. It looks like a high quality wheat. It is."
CMC’s Pressure Cure process enables you to combine wheat and other small grains shortly after physiological maturity (the peak of grain quality), capturing and preserving the fullest possible intrinsic value of the grain you have worked so hard to produce.
After successfully Pressure Curing his wheat crop, Goetz turned his attention to corn. "The corn we put in at 25-27% moisture, and they dried it down just fine." One experience during corn harvest convinced Goetz there is in fact merit to combining corn early and Pressure Curing it (as opposed to field drying). On one circle of irrigated corn "we first went through the field and it was 18.5% moisture. When we came back to finish that field one week later it was exactly 15.5% moisture, but there was a 7 1/2 to 8 bushel / acre drop in yield... and that was adjusted for shrink and checked over the scales." Dropped ears were almost nonexistent, so where did the yield go?
Respiration loss is a well-documented phenomenon whereby a small but significant percentage of the dry matter of the kernel is consumed by the embryo within the kernel. The embryo is alive and requires energy to maintain itself. Since the root system, stalk and leaves of the corn plant are dead, the only remaining source of energy is the kernel itself. In recent studies conducted by Purdue University, researchers identified a 1:1 relationship between field drydown and respiration yield loss. For each 1% of field drydown there was a corresponding 1% reduction in yield. In other words, if corn was allowed to field dry from 25% to 15%, the ten points of moisture loss would be accompanied by 10% yield loss. On a 150 bu / acre corn crop (wet basis) this 10% loss would amount to 15 bushels / acre. At even $2.00 this is $30.00 / acre worth of "invisible yield loss." Goetz’s experience confirms this phenomenon is real, but can be minimized by combining corn at 25% and removing the final 10 points of moisture in the controlled environment of a Pressure Cure® system. Since the gentle Pressure Cure® process utilizes high airflow and pressure to extract moisture (as opposed to heat) the test weight retained by combining early and avoiding respiration loss is not sacrificed in the drying process. For this reason, CMC’s customers routinely experience a two to four pound / bushel advantage in test weight in Pressure Cured corn compared with conventional drying systems. As Goetz points out "all the corn has been 58-60 lbs. both years with our Pressure Cure® bins, which is heavier than what I usually see hauling corn out of someone else’s bin."
From more timely seeding of his wheat crop to improved grain quality, yield and test weight on corn, Ed Goetz is reaping a variety of benefits from his six Pressure Cure® systems which contribute to improved profitability for his operation.
