Farmers and contractors, J&S Hay, have purchased a second Mecmar mobile drier to increase drying capacity of their heritage Bere barley, and certified seed barley, freeing up time previously spent monitoring grain drying.
J&S Hay grows Bere for the Birsay Heritage Trust, on land Hay sources, under stubble-to-stubble contracts between the Trust and individual landowners.
“Not only do we dry our own grain, we also dry barley and oats for local farmers and we needed to increase our drying capacity with a more automated solution,” says Marty Hay.
“We already had a PTO driven Mecmar which we loved but we had to switch the drier on, set the temperature and regularly check the moisture content of the grain,” adds Marty.
“Checking the moisture content is key for us. Bere is a very valuable crop and it takes a long time to dry and must not be over dried, so regular monitoring is essential. The same applies to our certified barley seed, which we sell to local farmers.”
Once the grain was dried, the Hays had to manually set the PTO driven Mecmar to discharge and then turn the drier and the tractor off. The overall manual operation was very time consuming.
“Our existing drier had served us very well. Following discussions with McArthur BDC we decided to purchase a used automatic electric Mecmar D 18 T with built-in aspirator cleaner.”
Grain comes off the combine into trailers and is taken back to the farm where it is tipped into separate bunkers in a grain shed. From the bunker the grain is picked up by telehandler and put into a hopper which feeds the electric Mecmar’s intake auger. Using the drier’s control panel the temperature is set and the grain is automatically dried to the correct moisture content.
During drying the Mecmar D 18 T’s built in aspirator cleaner automatically removes dust and chaff from the grain.
Once dried to the correct moisture content, the Mecmar D 18 T automatically discharges the grain into a bunker in an adjoining dry grain storage area. The seed barley is placed into storage bins and the Bere barley is stored in tote bags. Bere from different farms and different fields are stored in separate and clearly labelled tote bags to prevent potential cross contamination.
Bere is an ancient form of barley, with a unique appearance and taste, and has been grown and milled in Orkney for over 300 years. It is a quick growing but poor yielding crop which J&S Hay sows in mid-April and hopes to harvest in the second half of August. From the 150 acres grown the yield is between 200-250t.
Some of the Bere barley grown by J&S Hay goes to Barony Mill, Orkney’s only water mill, run by the Birsay Heritage Trust, where it is stone ground into Beremeal which is used by most Orkney bakeries.
The majority of the Hay’s Bere barley goes back to the mainland to be malted and then returns to a local Orkney distillery to produce whisky. “The electric Mecmar has delivered the extra capacity we need. When we are at our busiest, both Mecmar driers are running. By drying different crops in each we are able to save time by not having to clean out one drier between batches, reducing labour hours significantly as we can get on with other jobs.
“This automation has been very welcome as it has also helped us to reduce late nights during harvest,” concludes Marty.
