A grower (Gerri the NVT Guru) describes about a decade of practical experience using grain bags to store sorghum: why they adopted bags, early learning challenges, key operational tips (machine handling, site prep, pest control), quality outcomes, and maintenance practices. Emphasis is on moisture control, clean grain, proper bagging technique, and simple repairs/precautions to protect bags from wildlife and birds.
Questions this video answers
Approximately 10 years.
19 bags.
Under $100 a tonne.
Under 12%.
Chapters
We started using grain bags approximately 10 years ago. Our first dive into it, we put 19 bags down and learnt very quickly. We had our fair share of dramas for the first couple of bags, but it was a very good learning curve to do that many in one go. At the time we were putting sorghum into the bags and the price was under $100 a tonne. We didn't have any storage capacity that could handle our sorghum crop for that period. So we went and put the sorghum grain bags down and away we went. Paid very good dividends in the end. The biggest learning curves, I suppose were how to correctly put the bags on the machine. It's generally a two person job. If you can think of it as your meat sausage, it works in exactly the same fashion. My advice to someone doing it for the first time would be to try and get a person who knows how to do it to show you. Because there's a lot that goes on initially, but then once you get your processes sorted, then it's really straightforward after there, if you don't do it right, you can end up with split bags, big holes or bulges in your bags. Our experiences with moisture content is you've got to be at least under 12% with the grain being extremely clean. No trash, anything like that. Because you can end up with high moisture content at the top of your bag. Maintaining of the bags is very easy. Most times it's just a quick drive past to make sure there's no holes or anything. If there is any holes, a little dab of elastic or a few strips of good web tape is very easy to fix it. Our learning curve with our site preparation was very steep. We did have some near trees one year and the birds absolutely decimated them. So now we make sure that they're very clear of grass and crop all in one location so that we can fence it off with an electric fence if we need to. Our problems with wildlife are mainly kangaroos, foxes and birds have had the odd pig intrude the bag mostly very easy with just a quick electric fence to keep the roos and the pigs out. But we do use a bird scarer every now and then. Just a kite on a fishing rod basically and up in the air to keep the birds away. It works extremely well. The unloading of the bags is relatively very easy. If you've put down the bag in a nice straight fashion, there's really not too much that can go wrong. Our experience with quality of the grain is some feedlotters actually had to come and have a look to see what we were doing because the quality was so much better than what was coming out of the silo. In summary, the best tips, I'd say, make sure you've got good quality bags that will stand up to Australian conditions, good quality machines, and be very vigilant about when you're putting the bag down, that you haven't got any bulges or spilt grain or anything, because that will hinder you when you go to pick the grain up off the ground. Makes it very hard.
