How to avoid grain loss during storage with the iGRAIN®CARE IPM process

The steps in the suggested iGRAIN®CARE IPM process are:

• Review grain monitoring data including moisture and CO2 monitoring from the silo monitoring system
• Application of AI to interpret monitoring data automatically and define the new AI based measures reflecting the grain condition; grain quality, degree of infestation, and predicted safe storage time
• When the actual grain condition is established for each silo, the IPM strategy sequences grain consumption from the silos. This is planning the grain consumption based on the grain condition and the milling requirement to highlight the need for action to avoid losses in silos with ‘deteriorating grain’
• During the weekly grain management meeting the above data are reviewed, they are the base of operational decision-making on grain management, which ensures the most feasible actions like aeration control, chilling and fumigation are initiated in a transparent process involving the grain management

This decision-oriented IPM process encompasses all essential issues of grain storage:

• Assessing the incoming grain condition
• Planning of the specific milling requirements for final products
• Adapting to local climate challenges; and supporting the logistic consumption of the grain

All these complex tasks can only be carried out in an integrated feedback system for continual improvement with a focus on prevention of losses. The iGRAIN®CARE IPM application is designed to do just that and support the management in a transparent and controlled care process to reduce storage costs, avoid losses, and increase profitability.

Loss in grain storage and its causes

Having been to more than 90 countries and visited grain and milling facilities in most of them, I have had many experiences and seen a lot of challenges in grain management: some of them devastating. It is a noble cause to contribute to reducing grain losses. The UN estimates that 20 percent of all harvested grain is lost during storage. This article presents a new approach to avoid grain losses by combining advanced grain monitoring to assess grain quality and apply natural Nitrogen fumigation to preserve the grain without losses. This process is the iGRAIN®CARE IPM application. It is a practical IPM strategy with a focus on actual grain quality and procedures to preserve the grain with natural Nitrogen fumigation. It is designed to avoid grain losses.
Based on my observations from hundreds of mills and silo sites, and I have personally observed the root causes of grain storage problems, the complexity of the problems is at stake. Losses are in my opinion neither surprising nor difficult to discover. The grain storage industry is conservative and mostly based on what is believed or experienced to be ‘good practices’.

According to my observations:

• The grain industry staff, employed to look after the stored grain, are in many parts of the world insufficiently educated to understand the complexity of the biology in the stored grain eco-system. Though well intended, correct actions to protect the grain quality best possible is a challenge
• The concept of EMC (Equilibrium Moisture Concentration) appears academic and difficult to apply in practice without support. How EMC relates to ambient weather, and what happens when the fans are turned on, often remains unanswered. Aeration control is difficult if you want to keep the grain at a targeted moisture level or influence it correctly during storage
• Suppliers of silos, aeration fans, and grain monitoring systems suppliers can generally provide little or no help in terms of optimal EMC control, the topic is out of their business scope
• Temperature monitoring is still often thought off as the primary tool to monitor stored grain. Even though scientists and agricultural universities have recommended grain moisture monitoring and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) monitoring as the most essential
  tools in grain storage – it takes time to transmit knowledge and change practices. Only with all these three parameters: CO2, moisture, and temperature monitoring is the grain condition and the development in the stored grain eco system well monitored
• The biggest problem however is that without a proper interpretation of the grain monitoring data and the development of the grain’s condition over time the true understanding of the grain condition is not apparent. An extensive data set from a silo site where CO2, moisture, and temperature has been monitored across silos and time, is complex to analyse without some sort of support for big data understanding and management. Why else are the grain losses of 20 percent every year still ongoing?
• Historically, only very few in the grain storage industry focuses sufficiently on automating the monitoring and interpreting the monitoring data. Without this analysis, decisions on aeration control and crop protection strategies are not based on solid analytical data

My conclusion pertaining to the continuing losses of grain during storage is simply that grain management is too complex to manage without data and intelligent process support. Data informed process management is needed to support safe grain and no losses. This application is designed to support grain managers in the complex decision-making which entails to manage the grain. This application presents raw monitoring data as well as AI data interpretation to guide decisions on actions rationally and safely, and keep top management informed and involved.

Closing the knowledge gap

The primary problem with grain storage in the past was poor monitoring data, and typically only monitoring temperature and not observing the evolution of the grain condition over time. This does not provide good information about the condition in the grain eco system inside the silo. With proper monitoring and AI analysis, the grain condition, validated by CO2 and moisture monitoring, is established.

This results in key information for safe grain management:

•  How long will the grain stay in good quality in a specific silo?
• Is treatment recommended or needed to extend safe storage in a specific silo?

If the grain condition in each silo is known (including the safe storage time for each silo) and the future consumption is known (for example the weekly milling consumption), then it is a relatively simple logistic task to decide the most feasible way to keep grain in good quality and avoid losses. This also determines the need for how much grain must be treated to avoid losses.
The game changer is that the iGRAIN®CARE IPM application analyses the need for grain consumption and matches it up with the stored grain and the quality it is in. Further, it determines if some of the stored grain needs fumigation or another treatment before it can be consumed. The application is designed to support ongoing processes; centred around data informed and costcontrolled decision-making, and a weekly meeting reviewing the grain data.

Grain treatment options

Although the iGRAIN®CARE IPM application suggests use of natural Nitrogen fumigation the application can be adopted to the actual capabilities a silo storage plant has. The common operational options would include:

• Recycle a grain silo with detected infestation to gain extra time
• Fumigate, typically with Phosphine treatment
• Apply natural Nitrogen fumigation, chilling, or aeration control

Some of these tools will be available to most grain stores, however, the question is: when to apply which treatment strategy to achieve which result? This application operates with all possible treatment strategies available in a specific plant to preserve the grain and support grain management efficiently. The application will be presented below but let us first examine what can be achieved with aeration control, being the cheapest treatment strategy to get the grain into a safe condition at the desired moisture concentration, even in climates which are often considered difficult.

Automated aeration control
Historically, aeration control has been applied successfully in temperate climates because shortly after harvesting cold and relatively dry air is available. Many farmers in temperate climates have successfully stored their grain and used their aeration fans shortly after storage to cool down the grain to a safe temperature. This is a simple and effective procedure in temperate climates and the risk of wetting the grain is low. However, in all other climates there are higher risks when storing the grain. If aeration is done with too cold and dry air, the grain moisture is decreasing and thereby reducing value unnecessarily.
In tropical or sub-tropical areas there is a risk of wetting the grain during aeration. It is therefore important to have a 100 percent automatic aeration control system that automatically recalculates the ambient air temperature and relative humidity to the grain temperature and moisture condition (EMC) in the silo. Even an expert cannot do this manually because the ambient temperature and humidity changes constantly. To reach the target temperature and target grain moisture an automated system is needed. Additionally, silos are tall and advanced algorithms and reliable moisture sensors must be used to obtain a uniform target moisture concentration throughout the silo.

Novel treatment strategy
The iGRAIN®CARE IPM application can govern the practical grain management in any silo plant, provided there is sufficient monitoring data. The application supports safe grain quality and the reduction of losses. To eliminate losses, it is suggested to use the naturel Nitrogen fumigation system using the crop-protector® Nitrogen Generator. Natural fumigation is a green technology, also applicable in organic storage.

The principles of natural Nitrogen fumigation are simple:

• The requirement is to have a powerful Nitrogen generator to flush the grain storage silos
• The silos do not need to be 100 percent airtight but few precautions must be taken: there can be no backflush from the aeration transition unit, and some sealing between the top ring and the silo roof is needed
• Phase one of the Nitrogen fumigation is flushing the silo with Nitrogen, so the Oxygen concentration goes below two percent and preferably down to one percent. This takes approximately one day
• Phase two is to keep flushing the silo with sufficient Nitrogen for eight to fifteen days. This requires only five to fifteen percent of the generator capacity
• After completing fumigation, check that all insects are dead in the silo
• Feasibility studies show that the total costs of natural Nitrogen fumigation using the crop-protector® Nitrogen Generator is about US$0.3 per tonne.

Efficient grain management
The available treatment strategies being aeration, chilling, natural fumigation, and pesticide fumigation are already mentioned above. The difficult decision is always which option to choose to preserve the grain for a sufficient (needed) time at the lowest possible cost?
The suggested iGRAIN®CARE IPM application includes a system whereby the different options are compared according to their cost. This enables a cost-based grain management decision, which also includes a decision on the desired storage time in a specific silo. Based on this input an informed decision can be made considering cost, effectiveness, and grain safety for each silo.
The weekly meeting – the grain management audit – should include all relevant staff working with the grain storage to create a culture around using data and good procedures for safe grain management to avoid losses and improve stored grain quality. The grain manager on site is responsible for facilitating and reporting the meeting, the company provides the audit tool manual and supports the training of the grain manager(s) to learn the required meeting facilitation.

The meeting is based on a data report informing about the last weeks’ grain quality parameters in each silo. The report is automated, and contains the data provided by the application on:

• Inventory status
• Grain monitoring data: CO2, grain moisture, temperature
• Grain quality
• Degree of infestation
• Number of safe storage weeks
• Needed storage time
• Matched consumption

Further, the application will provide a set of suggestions for this week’s treatment actions. The application requires that all the following data is updated each week:

• Projected consumption (in weekly increments) for each stored commodity
• Projected further incoming grain (in weekly increments)

The report also contains empty fields to be filled during the weekly meeting directing preventive treatment actions. These actions are the direct outcome of the decision-making process. So, on a practical level, information is added to the weekly report following decisions on treatment. That is each silo is labelled with details about the possible treatment, like aeration, natural Nitrogen fumigation, etc.

The outcome of the meeting is the post audit weekly grain management report, which gives an overview of the condition of the stored grain in all silos, inventory status, grain quality parameters and the decisions on treatment action.
The grain manager is responsible for facilitating the decisions during the meeting, recording them and applying them in practice. After the meeting the weekly grain management report can be submitted to the top management for approval and possibly further discussions. The application is designed to involve a minimum of administrative resources.

Need of the hour
The Human Factor concept is concerned with understanding and managing the capabilities and limitations of people. It underlines, that we as humans make mistakes and forget things. Our attention span is limited. We overlook information when making decisions. We
get distracted, bored, tired or preoccupied. We mishear, misread and misunderstand. Our ability and education are limited. These issues are as much a part of human life as breathing, eating and sleeping.
Evidently, we can’t change the human condition, but we can design processes in such a way that they take the human capabilities and imperfections into account. This is exactly what the iGRAIN®CARE process does. The value of stored grain is high and often the highest
value resource. Mistakes are costly. Obviously, support for proper resource management and care is needed.
The application’s process supports the on-site operational staff to understand the grain’s condition, to take the right grain management decisions, and align the top management with the operations undertaken and the associated costs. Transparency is important for safe and cost-efficient grain resource management.
The process supports the operational staff to learn procedures around safe storage and to avoid losses, and it ensures that the stored grain can always be treated at a relatively low cost, optimising the grain quality and avoiding losses.
This new IPM application and the instrumental, systematic use of both raw and AI data in a management process is new in the grain industry – it is a front runner efficient management tool.

Article written by Biochemist Peer Hansen and published in Milling & Grain, December 2024