We've had a StorMor Ezee dry since '83, which is basically the same thing as the GSI. Set up on auto batch since 2010 with very few issues. I'd recommend one for sure.
I too used a Stormor system as well as a regular batch dryer. I would dump hot corn at about 16 per cent moisture or so depending on the ambient temperature both systems would then unload into full floor storage bins. We used to call it a steep process. The remaining kernal moisture would equalize to the outside of the kernal and would be driven off by the aeration fans process. That would lead to better quality grain and a more efficient drying process.
We built a new TopDry last year. We’d had one since 2004 and it’s still there, but we needed to upgrade capacity. The new one is a 36x11 with two burners and and 11,000bu wet bin. So far it’s be keeping up much better with faster drying and 3x wet capacity.
Well Mr Ben here you go right up my alley 😢 been around a 19000 bu TP here on the farm I work for. Probably 8-10 years they have,for the most part works pretty well. Boss wife runs it,have learned a lot by being around. In the video you ask about the heat of the grain going into another bin,we don’t have any trouble with that the cooling fan takes out darn good plus your not unloading at the same time in our situation only 1 leg🤫. The corn on the bottom will be cool first anyway. Good luck on your decision 🤞🤞!!! Thanks for the tour 😂😂.
I have 2 Stormor top dry bins. Using them since late 80's Connected together with a holding bin and all surrounded by a grain loop. It is so simple. Push one button to fill the bins, push the same bottom to load out semis. KISS Ben you going to Iowa Ag Expo? Like to meet you and show you pics of my system.
On our farm we are going to build a dryer set up to dry corn. We would like to have a top dry but in order to make it work you need a leg. So to keep the price down a Brock super B is the only option. It’s a continuous flow dryer. You can feed it with an auger and a blower system blows the dry corn into the storage bins. The top dryer system is double the money
The pit setup can take one semi in at a time. My guess is that the flow into the dryer every cycle time isn’t a whole semi. My guess 200 bu, but that’s a complete guess.
The top dry can be set up 3 different ways. It can be set up as a batch dryer ,so a 30 foot dryer dries 1500 bushels at a time probably 31/2 hours per batch 25 percent corn Auto flow dries and dumps corn continuously every so many minutes Auto batch is fully automatic dumps a complete batch and then refills itself
Far Better Long Term Investment! Also…don’t become a Fan Boy for One Brand! Lots of Great Companies…Dryer Manufacturers (MC Mathew’s, Grain Handler, Delux Dryers), Leg Manufacturers (Honeyville, Slagel, Creamer, Sweet), Other Bin Manufacturers (Sioux, Superior, Sukup, Conrad America). According to my Local Sukup Dealer, who use to be a GSI Dealer, GSI has Priced themselves out of the Market. They-GSI are Close to Double Sukups Price. If not a Small Mixed Flow Dryer, Shivvers System is By FAR The BEST Route to Go.
We've had 24' top dri with auto flow since 98. Just ordered a new 30' to replace it. Looked into a mixed flow, very expensive with no grain storage. Plus we would be a second leg adding an additional $75-100,000 in cost. Buyers like our grain quality.
Ben not ever having to dry grain due to being in Australia, one thing I can see if by having so much more weight up high the bins would have to be a lot heavier to with handle the weight. The other question is how long would it take to dry a semi load as if you harvest quicker than you can dry. As I said it all new as not ever having to or ever will dry any grain due to climate
they get blown out of the bin when the fans are running. Though GSI does make a grain cleaner attatchment for grain leg bin site setups that can sit between the grain leg and the disributer.
I fully realise that there is a whole series of different situations within the USA but is a lot of the stated drying capacity closely linked to to the dryer air temperature, ambient air humidity and a need for high volume capacity to match with bigger and bigger combines? That is an interesting design and overall efficiency involving recycling hot air. However I would have some significant concerns about the ease of being able to thoroughly clean out and disinfect huge bins like those effectively and efficiently. Here in Europe we have a wide range of crops being grown unlike the vast areas of maize and soya bean grown in the USA. Here small grains dominate combinable crops such as wheat, barley, rye, oats, triticale and oilseed crops notably oil seed rape (Colza), linseed and sunflower and a whole range of additional small grain crops such as clover and grass seed crops. These all require lower dryer temps so as to not evaporate the oils off the grain and the resistance of air flow through moist crops which often sharply reduces drying capacity per hour. Most crops grown for seed, often at fresh harvested condition, demand much shallower depth of crop and higher volumes at greater pressures of airflow over the drying floor. Many leguminous large seed crops also require slow drying rates to avoid skins splitting or passing through a drying system twice.
Ben, we built a new 36 foot top dry this fall didn't get to use it much because the corn was fairly dry out of the field. But i have another question maybe you could answer or someone watching could, is there a easier way to physically check moisture of corn at the bottom of top dry right at the chutes right before it goes to bottom of bin for storage opening the doors and climbing stairs late at night is not to appealing to me its not very safe. thanks, in advance
@jensage. Suppose the underfloor anger gearbox fails, & one million tons of grain in the bin. There is 2000 bushels of wet grain waiting to be dried, sitting in hopper trailers or grain carts? As for modern direct grain driers, the moisture controls & readings are quite accurate. Every farmer should pursue the system that performs best for his application. I note that top dry purchases are dwarfed by direct feed drier system sales. That said, I personally like the top dry concept.🚜🇺🇸🗽
Border view farms has two top dry units. The knock on them is when farmers employ them as primary driers, & said farmer is a large volume producer, they must then be emptied to handle new wet grain in same harvest season. Too much handling duplication. If product can be dried & then remain in the bin until sold, this is a worthwhile investment. I believe the largest top dry capacity is about 32,000 bushels, utilizing a duel burner setup. Top dry manufacturing has a newly acquired owner. There is a second manufacturer of the very similar concept as well. 🚜.
The grain is not handled more times than with any other type of dryer. If only one bin of grain needs drying it will probably be hard to justify the investment. As mentioned in the video it is fine with 10,000 bu per day with one leg but hard to do 30,000+ bu per day. Two legs would solve that. This facility was close to 400,000 bu total - grain will need transferring 🙂
@@jensageholm8774 When grain is fed from a stand alone drier, said grain is transported immediately through the grain leg to perm storage. When grain is removed from one bin to another, that task is more labor intensive. Border View published a thorough review of the process & the man hour comparison is not close. Trust the farmer who has extensive history with top dry. Want more proof? How many top dry bins are sold in the US relative to stand alone/grain leg units. Numbers tell the facts .💯
@@billupstateny9151 I follow Border View and from that you are correct - their mixed flow dryer setup is much more slick. But if you invest in separate dry grain handling for a TopDry system then I cannot see that it should be more labor intensive than other systems. A major disadvantage though is the lack of possibility to continously monitor the moisture of the dried grain so I would think that the risk of over-/underdrying is much greater - especially if the incoming grain is with big variation in moisture.
You would be FAR BETTER Off with a Shivvers Setup! I don’t know of anybody in IL South Central to Central IL with a Top Dry. Lot of GSI Bins, some Brock’s, and Now Sukup Bins. ZERO Top Drys though. Quite a Few Shivvers Setups though. Simple System and you get Storage Capability as well. You can also Tie them into a Future Grain Leg System later on down the road!
if you are intrested and wanna ask soemone else about more about TOP DRY and the bennifits and pros and cons and watnot from another that USES ONE, NATHAN BAKER at BORDER VIEW FARMS runs one, and has done several videos from inside while doin maintanance and offerin up his knowledge while takin the camera along... ;) I AGREE having a TOP DRY as a 1st dryer & BIN SOLUTION would be bennificial to a ''starting out farm'' or someone that just starrting to get BINNED UP :) having that 30k storage to keep some around a while before you have STORAGE ABILITY ... is big ''pro'' ;)
oh BEN YOU are intrested in... you should talk with NATHAN about a COLLAB :) he is in the south east corner of Michagan if you didn't kno... ;) HEHE I think you kno... anyhow unpausing, have an amazint everything!!
I’m was surprised they make those bins yet my boss had one and we cut the floor out for my storage it’s an old bin you see some old bins around here with them in it but everyone has gone to dryers now
We build one of these GSI top dry few years ago , highly recommend it too anyone , very low maintenance also
What are the specs of your TopDry? How are you moving the grain in and out of the dryer?
We've had a StorMor Ezee dry since '83, which is basically the same thing as the GSI. Set up on auto batch since 2010 with very few issues. I'd recommend one for sure.
I too used a Stormor system as well as a regular batch dryer. I would dump hot corn at about 16 per cent moisture or so depending on the ambient temperature both systems would then unload into full floor storage bins. We used to call it a steep process. The remaining kernal moisture would equalize to the outside of the kernal and would be driven off by the aeration fans process. That would lead to better quality grain and a more efficient drying process.
Very interesting video.
We built a new TopDry last year. We’d had one since 2004 and it’s still there, but we needed to upgrade capacity. The new one is a 36x11 with two burners and and 11,000bu wet bin. So far it’s be keeping up much better with faster drying and 3x wet capacity.
Sounds like a nice system. How many bu a day can you move in the system taking out 5 points?
Well Mr Ben here you go right up my alley 😢 been around a 19000 bu TP here on the farm I work for. Probably 8-10 years they have,for the most part works pretty well. Boss wife runs it,have learned a lot by being around. In the video you ask about the heat of the grain going into another bin,we don’t have any trouble with that the cooling fan takes out darn good plus your not unloading at the same time in our situation only 1 leg🤫. The corn on the bottom will be cool first anyway. Good luck on your decision 🤞🤞!!! Thanks for the tour 😂😂.
Sounds like you know your stuff! Thanks for sharing your experience!
There is some 3-D and computer generated animation out there that does a real good job of explaining how the top dry works.
Do you have a link?
That's a cool idea.
I have 2 Stormor top dry bins. Using them since late 80's
Connected together with a holding bin and all surrounded by a grain loop. It is so simple. Push one button to fill the bins, push the same bottom to load out semis. KISS
Ben you going to Iowa Ag Expo? Like to meet you and show you pics of my system.
I usually try and make it up to the Iowa Ag Expo for at least one day.
On our farm we are going to build a dryer set up to dry corn.
We would like to have a top dry but in order to make it work you need a leg.
So to keep the price down a Brock super B is the only option. It’s a continuous flow dryer.
You can feed it with an auger and a blower system blows the dry corn into the storage bins. The top dryer system is double the money
but what does it look like if its double the money and you figure in the storage?
Interesting thanks
You bet! It’s pretty unique.
The heat recycling function is very cool. Can you dump a full semi worth of corn at one time or is the transfer rate a limitation?
The pit setup can take one semi in at a time. My guess is that the flow into the dryer every cycle time isn’t a whole semi. My guess 200 bu, but that’s a complete guess.
@@iowANFarmer Capacity in the top is probably 2,500+ bu so if 1/3 is dumped at a time it would be around 800 bu per cycle.
The top dry can be set up 3 different ways.
It can be set up as a batch dryer ,so a 30 foot dryer dries 1500 bushels at a time probably 31/2 hours per batch 25 percent corn
Auto flow dries and dumps corn continuously every so many minutes
Auto batch is fully automatic dumps a complete batch and then refills itself
You do whatever you want Ben, but I think a mixed flow dryer will have better capacity and be less maintenance.
I hope to get a chance to look at a Mixed Flow
Dryer as well.
Far Better Long Term Investment! Also…don’t become a Fan Boy for One Brand! Lots of Great Companies…Dryer Manufacturers (MC Mathew’s, Grain Handler, Delux Dryers), Leg Manufacturers (Honeyville, Slagel, Creamer, Sweet), Other Bin Manufacturers (Sioux, Superior, Sukup, Conrad America).
According to my Local Sukup Dealer, who use to be a GSI Dealer, GSI has Priced themselves out of the Market. They-GSI are Close to Double Sukups Price.
If not a Small Mixed Flow Dryer, Shivvers System is By FAR The BEST Route to Go.
We've had 24' top dri with auto flow since 98. Just ordered a new 30' to replace it. Looked into a mixed flow, very expensive with no grain storage. Plus we would be a second leg adding an additional $75-100,000 in cost. Buyers like our grain quality.
Shivvers
Ben not ever having to dry grain due to being in Australia, one thing I can see if by having so much more weight up high the bins would have to be a lot heavier to with handle the weight. The other question is how long would it take to dry a semi load as if you harvest quicker than you can dry. As I said it all new as not ever having to or ever will dry any grain due to climate
When your drying grain you always get bees wings from corn how do you get rid of them??
So were do they go??
Great question, I should have asked that.
Out the vents or some stick in the atic area of Top Dry. Go up and blow out with air not bad!
they get blown out of the bin when the fans are running. Though GSI does make a grain cleaner attatchment for grain leg bin site setups that can sit between the grain leg and the disributer.
I fully realise that there is a whole series of different situations within the USA but is a lot of the stated drying capacity closely linked to to the dryer air temperature, ambient air humidity and a need for high volume capacity to match with bigger and bigger combines?
That is an interesting design and overall efficiency involving recycling hot air. However I would have some significant concerns about the ease of being able to thoroughly clean out and disinfect huge bins like those effectively and efficiently.
Here in Europe we have a wide range of crops being grown unlike the vast areas of maize and soya bean grown in the USA. Here small grains dominate combinable crops such as wheat, barley, rye, oats, triticale and oilseed crops notably oil seed rape (Colza), linseed and sunflower and a whole range of additional small grain crops such as clover and grass seed crops.
These all require lower dryer temps so as to not evaporate the oils off the grain and the resistance of air flow through moist crops which often sharply reduces drying capacity per hour.
Most crops grown for seed, often at fresh harvested condition, demand much shallower depth of crop and higher volumes at greater pressures of airflow over the drying floor.
Many leguminous large seed crops also require slow drying rates to avoid skins splitting or passing through a drying system twice.
Ben, we built a new 36 foot top dry this fall didn't get to use it much because the corn was fairly dry out of the field. But i have another question maybe you could answer or someone watching could, is there a easier way to physically check moisture of corn at the bottom of top dry right at the chutes right before it goes to bottom of bin for storage opening the doors and climbing stairs late at night is not to appealing to me its not very safe. thanks, in advance
I think they were talking about a solution to your question. Just didn’t make the video.
@jensage. Suppose the underfloor anger gearbox fails, & one million tons of grain in the bin. There is 2000 bushels of wet grain waiting to be dried, sitting in hopper trailers or grain carts?
As for modern direct grain driers, the moisture controls & readings are quite accurate. Every farmer should pursue the system that performs best for his application. I note that top dry purchases are dwarfed by direct feed drier system sales. That said, I personally like the top dry concept.🚜🇺🇸🗽
Interesting
Thank you!
Border view farms has two top dry units. The knock on them is when farmers employ them as primary driers, & said farmer is a large volume producer, they must then be emptied to handle new wet grain in same harvest season. Too much handling duplication. If product can be dried & then remain in the bin until sold, this is a worthwhile investment. I believe the largest top dry capacity is about 32,000 bushels, utilizing a duel burner setup. Top dry manufacturing has a newly acquired owner. There is a second manufacturer of the very similar concept as well. 🚜.
AGI manufacturers a similar system. The galvanized coating on AGI is 120 vs 90 on top dry. 🇺🇸🗽
The grain is not handled more times than with any other type of dryer. If only one bin of grain needs drying it will probably be hard to justify the investment. As mentioned in the video it is fine with 10,000 bu per day with one leg but hard to do 30,000+ bu per day. Two legs would solve that. This facility was close to 400,000 bu total - grain will need transferring 🙂
@@jensageholm8774 When grain is fed from a stand alone drier, said grain is transported immediately through the grain leg to perm storage. When grain is removed from one bin to another, that task is more labor intensive. Border View published a thorough review of the process & the man hour comparison is not close. Trust the farmer who has extensive history with top dry. Want more proof? How many top dry bins are sold in the US relative to stand alone/grain leg units. Numbers tell the facts .💯
@@billupstateny9151 I follow Border View and from that you are correct - their mixed flow dryer setup is much more slick. But if you invest in separate dry grain handling for a TopDry system then I cannot see that it should be more labor intensive than other systems. A major disadvantage though is the lack of possibility to continously monitor the moisture of the dried grain so I would think that the risk of over-/underdrying is much greater - especially if the incoming grain is with big variation in moisture.
👍👍👍👍👍👍
👍
You would be FAR BETTER Off with a Shivvers Setup! I don’t know of anybody in IL South Central to Central IL with a Top Dry. Lot of GSI Bins, some Brock’s, and Now Sukup Bins. ZERO Top Drys though. Quite a Few Shivvers Setups though. Simple System and you get Storage Capability as well. You can also Tie them into a Future Grain Leg System later on down the road!
This sure ain't Grandpa's farming. My Grandpa was a farmer in Soth Dakota--livestock and crop.
Sure he didn’t have an old TopDry in the field?
Quite certain. We used to go out to the farm when I was little. I helped gather eggs from the chicken coop. Those hens were mean! lol
Changing products would be a pain
if you are intrested and wanna ask soemone else about more about TOP DRY and the bennifits and pros and cons and watnot from another that USES ONE, NATHAN BAKER at BORDER VIEW FARMS runs one, and has done several videos from inside while doin maintanance and offerin up his knowledge while takin the camera along... ;)
I AGREE having a TOP DRY as a 1st dryer & BIN SOLUTION would be bennificial to a ''starting out farm'' or someone that just starrting to get BINNED UP :) having that 30k storage to keep some around a while before you have STORAGE ABILITY ... is big ''pro'' ;)
they run both too! so he has experience in them both :) TOP dry and the plinko triangle wall of corn one...
AWESOME VIDO BEN!!! :) THANKS FOR SHAREING!!! :) I am thinkin WARM THOUGHTS RIGHT NOW FOR YOU I HOPE YOU FELT IT!! :)
oh BEN YOU are intrested in... you should talk with NATHAN about a COLLAB :) he is in the south east corner of Michagan if you didn't kno... ;) HEHE I think you kno... anyhow unpausing,
have an amazint everything!!
I’m was surprised they make those bins yet my boss had one and we cut the floor out for my storage it’s an old bin you see some old bins around here with them in it but everyone has gone to dryers now
I think these operate differently now.
@iowANFarmer they don't though. Same proof of concept they are just WAY bigger and automatic with technology updated to modern day.
👉🕵