Grain prices are back this year, with some merchants buying barley off the combine for €128/tonne. At these prices, livestock farmers who have storage facilities will be looking more closely at the option of buying grain direct for feeding later in the year.

Some farmers will store small amounts of grain without treatment. Ideally, you need grain to be at 14% moisture or below for safe storage over an extended duration. As the moisture content increases, the safe storage period decreases. To avoid grain heating, it should be stored in shallow piles. This, however, requires additional space.

I spoke with Eoin Jordan, from Jordan Agri Ltd Co. Carlow about some treatment options that are available to farmers who are considering buying and storing larger volumes of their own grains.

Crimping

This involves the harvesting of grain from 25% to greater than 40% moisture, often three to four weeks ahead of the conventional harvest date. The grain is rolled and ensiled until feeding time. Jordans have been involved in crimping for about 10 years. According to Eoin, its main advantage is that it can be easily stored in an outdoor silage pit and covered with polythene. It’s not as critical to keep the grain as dry as with other options.

Crimping is still popular in certain areas, but the process has waned a bit in the past five years, said Eoin. Part of the reason for this is the increased value of straw. Contractors also aren’t keen on cutting crops at 30% moisture; it can be tougher on the combine. It can also be difficult to agree a value on the grain at 30% moisture compared to 20%. It is a lot easier to trade grain at 18%, according to Eoin.

At harvesting, straw is still a little green, with some sugars present. Some farmers were ensiling the straw straight away. Eoin said it is a good way of getting chopped straw directly into the diet. However, this didn’t happen regularly as there was often a distance to travel between the tillage farm and the livestock farm. Transport costs outweighed the benefits.

Today, it is often farmers who are growing their own crops that are crimping. Bio Crimp is a product that Jordans use in the process (costs in table 1). The ensiled crop will ferment to pH of 4 or 4.5 during the crimping process where the seed coat is cracked as the additive is applied.

Propionic acid

More recently, there has been a gradual progression to the use of organic acids such as propionic acid. Applied to mature grain with moisture content from 16% to 24%, propionic acid preservation has been used for decades.

It became popular again as crimping machines became more available across the country. Machine availability meant that the grain could be rolled and the acid applied at the same time. “You have a feed that is ready to be fed immediately. You could feed it the next day,” said Eoin. The product Jordans use is Propcorn.

Twenty years ago, farmers used to treat the whole grain and roll it as they needed it. It requires 4-5L/t with whole grain. Today, the rate is doubled because the grain is being rolled while being treated. 10L/t at 20% moisture is required, but 8L/t is sufficient at 18% moisture said Eoin.

Treated grain should be stored on a dry clean floor. Jordan sees propionic acid fulfilling a purpose for farmers feeding smaller amounts of grain on farm. It can be fed directly after treatment.

The issue with feeding higher levels of acid-treated grains to cattle, according to Eoin, is the acid loading on the rumen. If you are feeding maize or grass silage with a pH of 4 and then feed acid-treated grain with a pH of 4.5, you are increasing the risk of acidosis. This is fine if you are feeding only three or four kilos of grain, but if you are trying to push cattle for performance, you can’t feed high volumes of this grain.

Urea/ammonia treatment

Most of Jordan’s grain treatment business is now based around a product known as Maxammon. This season is their fourth year working with the product. Eoin is confident that grain treated with this product can be fed almost ad-lib, provided cattle are built up to that level of feed slowly, as with any feed.

Because the product is alkaline based, it raises the pH of the grain to between 8.5 and 9.5. If you are feeding it with grass or maize silage with a pH in the region of 4, then you arrive at an average pH of close to 6.5. This is ideal for good rumen function.

In simple terms, the additive is a combination of feed-grade urea, full-fat soya bean, essential oils and an advanced grain enzyme which will release ammonia within the ensiled grain, thereby rapidly preserving the grain. It can be applied using a diet feeder and either rolling the grain before treatment or just ahead of feeding.

Most of Eoin’s customers roll the grain and apply the additive all at once. In order to get the benefits of the product, it should be sealed under plastic for a period of two weeks. It can also be stored outside. However, no moisture must be able to get into the grain.

According to Eoin, this product is marginally more costly than the other options, but the benefits outweigh the spend. The higher pH reducing the risk of acidosis is one. Increasing the protein by 30% is another. Urea is converted to ammonia, which is a building block of amino acids and increases the protein content. The quality of the additional protein provided is compared to that of distiller’s grain.

Rolling grain in Louth

Richard Lynch is rolling and managing grain from his County Louth base, covering six counties for over seven years. When I talked to him this week, he said he couldn’t understand why more livestock farmers were not teaming up with neighbouring grain growers to buy whole grains and then roll and store the grains for feeding.

He said: “Livestock farmers could work so well with grain or potato producers. Some of my best customers work directly with each other. All that happens is the grain is harvested, weighed, moisture sampled and then brought to the farm where it is going to be stored.

“We work with livestock farmers to treat grain whatever way they want. We can use up to seven different treatments. I don’t understand why some farmers who have the storage facilities sell grain to a merchant and then buy back more expensive rations. Rolling and treating your own grain eliminates the need for driers, and for me it adds value to a product that might be only worth €130 per tonne this year.”

Costs

Richard said he can calibrate his applicators to use any of the Alkagrain or acid-based treatments on the market. In terms of cost, Richard said rolling costs €12 per tonne plus VAT and then depending on what treatment you use, it can cost about €26 to €28 per tonne, so it comes to about €40 per tonne rolled and treated.

All you need, once the grain is rolled and treated, is a large shed with dry roof and walls and your grain will be preserved perfectly.

He said, “I’ve also seen farmers section off a part of a shed with large square bales and a sheet of plastic and drop 30 to 40 tonnes of grain beside it to work perfectly well.”

Ideally, you need grain at about 18% to 20% moisture content, which is the normal moisture content for grain growers when grain is ripe for harvesting, unlike wholecrop silage, which is normally harvested a couple of weeks prior to harvesting. Richard explained that some of those selling the preservative treatments also suggest the treatments can increase the pH of the feed, which they claim can reduce ruminal acidosis and also lift protein.

Options

For grains coming in at between 18% and 20% moisture, you need about 20 to 30 kg of product per tonne treated, depending on what product is used to treat the grain.

Richard said: “A farmer would use 20kg of Maxammon per tonne of grain and it would cost about €26 per tonne treated. For a product like Home N Dry, you would need 30kg of product per tonne of grain treated and it would cost in the region of €28 per tonne treated. For a product like propionic acid, you need seven to eight litres of acid per tonne at €1.50 per litre so the cost is about €12 per tonne. All you do is roll, treat and then pile it between six and seven feet high and you have grain preserved for 12 months.”

Speed

Richard’s machine can process 22 to 25 tonnes per hour on average and he said usually the speed of the tractor and loader filling the machine is the limiting factor.