Customer Testimonial
<< Back to MapPressure Curing® Corn in Wisconsin
When you run this Pressure Cure® corn out of the bin...this is the kind of corn you dream about. The kernels are all plump, bright yellow and they’re hard.
Ron Meinnert
Sheboygan Falls, WI
Improved Time and Labor Management
“You’re going to dry cheaper than if you are drying in town, your shrink is going to be less, you’re not catering to anybody else’s schedule, you’ve got your commodity at home and you’ve got control of where it goes.” These were the key advantages which Ron Meinnert, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, was looking for to improve the efficiency and, ultimately, the profitability of his diversified crop / livestock operation. Now in his fifth year of Pressure Curing, Meinnert is convinced he is reaping these and other important benefits from his 42’ (20,000 bushel) CMC Pressure Cure® system.
With a sizable dairy herd, a hog finishing operation and several hundred acres of cropland, Ron and wife Carol were looking for a way to gain control of their corn crop, without placing further stress on labor and management. Ron recalls, “we really didn’t want to babysit a batch drier or a stirrator bin. I wanted to stay away from fire. I’m not comfortable with running burners unattended. I didn’t want to have to work in the field all day long and then have to switch batches in a batch dryer once or twice a night.”
Meinnert also appreciates the efficiency with which they can get the crop off, and complete all necessary fall tillage in a timely manner. “You’ve got complete control when you are combining. Go on the days you want, when you want. You don’t have to fit into somebody else’s schedule. When we’re done combining we can hit our fall tillage...we’re not babysitting a dryer. We can fill our Pressure Cure bin in two days and move on to other projects.”
Fortunately these “other projects” do NOT include performing maintenance on his grain drying system. “We were sold on Pressure Curing from the beginning simply because there is very little mechanical on the bin, except for the Air Pumps and unload motors, and that is all on the outside of the bin.”
In addition to improved time and labor management, Meinnert has been impressed with the overall quality of his Pressure Cure® corn. He feels this superior quality and palatability is paying dividends for his hog enterprise. “We have a finishing barn for hogs...we run about 1000 head per year. Since we’ve had Pressure Cure® we’ve been feeding strictly out of the bin. What the hogs don’t eat...we sell the balance. We’ve been real pleased with the results. When you run this Pressure Cure® corn out of the bin...this is the kind of corn you dream about. The kernels are all plump, bright yellow and they’re hard.” Every year Meinert has observed that his Pressure Cure corn is also far more consistent in quality than the corn they used to haul in from a commercial drying facility.
“We know that everything that goes into the hogs is nice, clear corn. When you work out of an elevator...the first corn out the bin is going to have a lot of fines and the last corn out of the bin may have a lot of fines. We don’t run into that anymore. When we feed our hogs now every batch is very uniform.” Uniform and heavy.
Since the Pressure Cure system utilizes a high volume of air under pressure to dry the grain, maximum test weight is retained through the drying process. Most producers observe a two to four pound advantage in test weight on Pressure Cured corn versus conventional drying systems. This advantage equates to more bushels in the bin and more dollars in the bank. Meinert has seen this advantage first hand.
“Our mixer mill used to hold about 6500 pounds [of heat-dried corn]. Now we can get about 7000 pounds of Pressure Cured corn into that mill. We’ve got more weight for the same volume. Since we’ve had the Pressure Cure bin our test weights have been just great. On what we’ve sold we’ve always been in the 57-58 pound/bushel range, and that’s over four years of experience. We never saw that kind of test weight when running corn from the field to the local elevator and heatdrying it. There’s got to be more than just water [leaving the kernel] when you see those dryers steaming away.”
Since CMC’s Pressure Cure® system is a cutting-edge departure from conventional drying methods,Meinnert did question how it would perform under adverse drying conditions. “One of my concerns when we first started was being eight miles from Lake Michigan...maybe we had too much humidity in the air. There’s not a doubt in my mind...that does not make a whole lot of difference. As far as saying ‘it doesn’t work’...that’s false. In our area, eight miles from Lake Michigan,we get along with our Pressure Cure® system just fine.
When you’re standing on top of 20 feet of grain...and you can feel that cool air coming through the system...and when you realize you have that much airflow, that’s when you understand it is going to work.”
Finally, as with any type of equipment on the farm, it is only as good as the people who stand behind it. Meinnert has been impressed with the quality of workmanship and support he has received from CMC. “As far as I’m concerned, from the installation crew to Carl Tollefson (Meinnert’s regional Pressure Cure® Specialist) and everyone else at CMC...we’ve been real satisfied.”
From improved labor and time management to superior grain quality for his hogs, Ron Meinnert is enjoying a variety of benefits improving his bottom line. Having seen these benefits consistently over a period of years, his experiences have shown that “with a Pressure Cure® bin you control your own destiny.”
