High-quality cereal with less energy

In Vähäkyrö in western Finland grain drying has been rethought altogether. A farming consortium and a company that supplies grain dryers joined their forces and received innovation funding for their project.

– We are building a modern, automated cereal drier with a new kind of device for moisture
measurement. As a result we have more homogenous quality, with less energy and farmer’s time
consumed in the drying process, Sippola says.

The measuring techniques so far used in grain drying have been inaccurate, which is why the grains
are usually dried for a longer time than necessary just in case. The farmer cannot fully rely on the
automated dryer to changes the dried grains into another batch. External factors such as air humidity may have a significant impact on the outcome. Automation is no use if the farmer has to go and check how things are on the spot.

The more precise measuring devices to be built by means of the innovation funding stores the data
into the cloud service and the farmer can monitor the situation using his or her home computer. The
energy-smartness is further enhanced by the farm’s own chipping plant which provides the operating
power for the dryer.

More information: mtysippola (a) netikka.fi

Date updated: Feb 17, 2020