October 19, 1998
Green trash in your soybean storage bin could cause the beans to spoil. An engineer with the University of Minnesota Extension Service recommends checking bins this fall for pockets of green trash.
"In a number of upper Midwest soybean fields this fall, beans matured and dried on plants that were still green," says Bill Wilcke. "Combining soybeans on green plants can result in large amounts of green, wet pods, pieces of stems, and other trash in the harvested crop. During handling, the seeds and green trash tend to segregate, and the trash accumulates in pockets in the storage bin."
Wilcke says such pockets of high-moisture material are likely to mold and heat in storage, and could lead to significant spoilage of the soybeans around them.
"If you find enough trash that you're likely to have problems, try to remove it, or at least spread it out as much as possible," says Wilcke. "If you aren't able to remove or spread out the trash, keep watching it for signs of mold and heating. Aerate the beans as often as necessary to prevent spoilage and keep the temperature of the stored beans at 20 to 30 degrees F. If you aren't able to control heating problems by using aeration, consider emptying the bin and running the beans through a grain cleaner before returning them to storage."
If you haven't completed harvesting soybeans yet, Wilcke says the following strategies can reduce problems with pockets of trash in the storage bin: (1) Set the combine to minimize the amount of non-seed material in the harvested crop. (2) Run the soybeans through a grain cleaner to remove excessive trash. (3) Use a grain distributor during bin filling to reduce segregation of seeds and trash.
Wilcke says soybean seeds are usually dry enough for safe storage at harvest. However, wet pods and stems frequently lead to storage problems. "Since the price per bushel for soybeans is usually two to three times that of other crops," says Wilcke, "stored beans ought to be worth two to three times the management effort."
Bill Wilcke is a faculty member in the College of Agricultural,
Food, and Environmental Sciences.
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Source: Bill Wilcke, (612) 625-8205
Editor: Joseph Kurtz, Communications, (612) 625-3168, pkurtz@extension.umn.edu
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