Drying grain quickly is vital for safe storage

HGCA is strongly urging all growers whose harvest has been disrupted by the bad weather to make sure they dry their grain as quickly as possibly once it has been harvested. The wet weather has not only delayed harvest but has led to high grain moisture content. This substantially increases the risk that storage mycotoxin's will develop.

"It can be very tempting to leave the grain in store and carry on with all the other urgent jobs that have been delayed because of the weather," said HGCA's assistant director of R&D, Dr Roger Williams. "But we strongly recommend growers don't do this."

"It is vital to dry the grain to below 18% as quickly as possible, then continue drying to 14.5% or below. Failure to dry grain rapidly will increase the risk of the mycotoxin ochratoxin A forming in stored grain," added Dr Williams. "Then there's the added risk that this week's warm spell may have raised grain temperatures, producing conditions that are favourable for rapid pest development."

"Therefore, we're urging growers to focus on the well-established basics of drying and cooling to avoid further problems with this years' crop" he said. "The last thing anyone wants is loss of quality through poor storage, and EU legislation now sets a maximum limit of 5 parts per billion for ochratoxin A."

More detailed information on the best methods of drying and cooling grain can be found in HGCA's Grain Storage Guide and on Topic Sheet No.78. Both can be found on www.hgca.com or by calling HGCA on 020 7520 3920.