Auger Valve Takes Random Grain Samples

Auger Valve Takes Random Grain Samples GRAIN HANDLING Accessories 13-6-26 "It saves me a lot of time and money. Keeps me from over-drying grain and I haven't had any spoilage since I started using it," says George Roeder, Monroeville, Ohio, about the grain sampler "valve" he came up with to take random samples of grain corning out of his batch dryer. Roeder farms alone and when harvesting corn, he brings in a load, augers it into his batch dryer to dry, and then heads back out to the field. He mounts the sampler valve on the dryer unload auger and leaves it open so that when the automatic dryer empties its load, he can get a sample of the dried grain to test when he comes back in from the field. "It sure beats climbing up into the bin to get a sample and lets me constantly monitor dryer performance. I dry grain down to about 14% moisture. If it gets too dry I'm wasting fuel and if it doesn't get dry enough, spoilage could develop," says Roeder. To install the aluminum valve, he cuts a 1 1/2-in. dia. hole at about a 45? angle on the 8-in. dia. unload auger. The valve is simply held in place over the hole with a metal strap. Roeder puts a 5-gal. pail under the valve and opens it up so that when the batch unloads, it'll take a continuous sample of grain as it's loaded out to the bin. Roeder says the valve also works great when loading out grain from his bins. "I like to take a sample as I'm loading into trucks. It's a lot easier than climbing up into the truck and gives me a sample from a greater amount of grain than if I just scooped up a pailfull." The valve sells for $24.95 and will fit any size auger. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, George Roeder, 3684 U.S. 20 West, Monroeville, Ohio 44847 (ph 419 465-2745).

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