Monitor bins by sMartphone By Maggie Van Camp, CG Associate Editor A new web-based bin-monitoring system that can be accessed by smartphones is now on the market. Calgary’s Mifarm.ag Management’s system uploads real-time data on grain bin conditions to a cellular network, to help farmers better protect their crops from spoilage and theft. Sensors located in bins monitor grain volume, temperature, and relative humidity, as well as control fans. The system also uniquely monitors grain levels to warn of theft, an increasing threat. Instead of buying and installing the system, you sign up for a three-year contract and Mifarm provides the service, including the cables and relay system. This costs about $0.12 per bushel over three years and includes service. Every 15 minutes the sensors give a reading and within 10 minutes you get an alarm by email. Mifarm president, Gary Gunthorpe, says the company started installing systems this summer and recently installed a 400-sensor system in a 30-bin storage facility. The information is communicated by cloud-based database that farmers can access via web portal and smartphone applications on both Rogers and Bell. “Our cellphone modem is higher and more powerful,” said Gunthorpe when asked about cellular dead zones. “It has four times the power of your cellphone.” The development work started in September 2010 with three partners. Delta T Engineering, ATI Agritronics Inc. an instrumentation company from Saskatoon and Cervus Equipment, a large publicly traded company owning the largest group of John Deere dealers in Canada. Recently, the federal government loaned $750,000 to Mifarm.ag Management Inc. to help commercialize this grain management technology. The project forecasts the manufacturing and installation of 300 systems in 2013 and thousands more by 2016, and will create 15 full-time positions in the process. Continued from page 23 b u s i n e s s Grain bags have also been a good solution for larger-than-expected yields, or for crops that require storage but are only grown once in a three- or four-year rotation, like oats. In 1997, the Sheas put up two more 9,000-bushel bins, enough for 100 acres of wheat or 200 acres of soybeans, the two crops that are traditional on this flat, heavy-clay land. Having three bins, naturally let them consider a third crop, and they started growing corn. That same year, Jeff came home from attending DuPont’s Young Leaders program in the Midwest with one word on his lips — ethanol. From listening to other participants, he knew corn demand was going up. He could also see yields going up, thanks to bio- AdvAntAge #2 Avoid harvest marketing Over the years, Jeff has used his storage to avoid selling off the combine when harvest-time supplies were strong. His first lesson in the power of patience came with his first bin. At harvest some of his wheat graded as feed with greater than 10 per cent sprouting (another challenge in Ontario’s damp climate). Jeff stored that wheat until the end of the winter when he knew supplies were tighter… and the same wheat graded #2 with a healthy premium over feed. A few sales like that can help pay for the bin, Jeff says. Jeff leverages his stubborn streak with some good market information. In 2003 the Sheas added 50,000 bushels storage and at the next harvest corn was only $2.80 a bushel. Jeff filled the bins and held… and held… and held. By September corn finally got to his sell point of $4. It’s during market downtimes when having bin space really pays, says Jeff. When prices dipped two years ago, the Sheas built a 60,000-bushel bin. “In the summer of 2010, I still had 90 per cent of 09’s corn stored, and then in August I bought all our 2011 fertilizer,” says Jeff. “Corn was $3.75 per bushel in the fall and by June it was $4.40.” However, Jeff adds that it doesn’t always work to his advantage.“Sometimes my dad says I’m too in love with the grain…” tech traits including glyphosate tolerance. Although corn prices at the time were far from stellar, Jeff saw long-term opportunity. It was an insight that was bolstered by his work as a DeKalb seed dealer and former Monsanto sales representative, where he could see exceptional corn growers in his area starting to really make progress with corn. That’s when Jeff added the dryer. “When times are tough is when I build bins,” says Jeff. “These bins are built for $3 corn, not $6 corn.” In fact, Jeff doesn’t like the risk of storing corn when prices are high and the threat of prices going down weighs heavily. Although the Sheas core all their bins and have heat cables, he’s also well aware of the potential of spoilage. A major player in Ontario’s grain sector agrees that marketing from on-farm bins takes judgment. Anyone who operates grain-handling facilities needs to clearly understand their costs and know that storing grain will not always be a good marketing strategy, says Wes Thompson, president of Thompsons Limited in Blenheim, Ont. “Get either of these principles wrong, and profits evaporate.” Commercial elevators use storage for their own account only after careful analysis, says Thompson. “Generally, one in four years, storage is a waste of money.” In 2010, storing grain for a sale later in the year was clearly a winning strategy, but in 2011, storage looked like a mistake by the end of the winter, although the Midwest drought later turned that situation completely around. The lesson, says Thompson, is that it can be hard to predict the returns to storage, and it’s impossible to guarantee that storage will pay for itself in any given year. For wheat, Tjaden Lepp also takes a cautious approach, recommending partial sales and then holding some crop for sales into early 2013. “Some pricing before harvest is a good risk management strategy,” says Tjaden Lepp. Continued on page 26 2 4 c o u n t r y - g u i d e . c a S E p T E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 2
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