It’s important to keep a close eye on your canola bins during winter. Monitoring, aeration, taking samples and using fans or ‘spinning the bins’ can help keep heat down in the canola bin.

Canola storage requires continued vigilance

Using fans and taking care during canola harvest can help prevent hot canola and spoilage issues

Successful canola storage for Prairie farmers starts with proper management at harvest time, and then continues through the winter months.



Photo: iStock

Farm growth pushes farmers to bring grain handling and conditioning home

As farms have increased in size, their storage requirements now mean far greater quantities of a single crop, whether it be canola or wheat. This means higher capacity, flat-bottomed bins. These are often centrally located, with larger capacity handling equipment and sometimes permanently installed handling equipment.

Only weeks after extreme cold warnings blanketed the area, warm temperatures and February rain saw fields west of Brandon lose their snow cover.

Avoiding grain spoilage when temperatures get wild

Grain storage advice for when winter swings from extreme cold to unseasonably warm

With unusually high temperatures interrupted by two deep freezes, it’s been a challenging winter for grain storage on the Prairies and one requiring diligence to protect stored crop. Anne Kirk, cereal crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, advises aeration and vigilant monitoring of bin moisture and temperature. The latter is particularly important when outside temperatures fluctuate.


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U.S. farmers face harsh economics with record corn supplies in silos

Growers miscalculated when they held on to corn rather than booking sales, experts say

Farmers across the United States are kicking themselves for putting off corn sales after fields dried up in May and June, fueling expectations for higher prices and smaller harvests. Instead, prices tanked as rains saved the crop. The size and speed of the price collapse stung farmers and left their storage bins stuffed with record amounts of corn.

Ukrainian farmers who owned their own equipment were not at risk of missing crucial field work windows.  Photo: Ihor Pavliuk

War teaches Ukrainian farmers tough lessons 

As the war approaches its second anniversary, the farmers who adapted earliest have been in the best position to survive  

Feb. 24 marks two years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It seems like a short time, but it has caused huge upheaval in our society. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have lost their homes.

Today’s bins can hold more than 10 times the volume of structures a generation ago, but with this capacity comes challenges to keep grain in good condition.

Storage strategies change with bigger bins

As storage systems have grown, more attention is needed to keep crops safe

In the 1970s, a standard bin was 14 feet in diameter with a capacity of 1,350 bushels. High rollers might add an extra ring to stretch that another 300 bu. There were bins 19 feet in diameter, with a 2,700 bu. capacity, but few farmers bought them because they were hard to shovel out and


A seaport grain terminal damaged during Russian missile and drone strikes in Odesa region, Ukraine on July 19, 2023. (Photo: Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry via Facebook/Handout via Reuters)

Russia destroyed 300,000 tonnes of grain since July in attacks, Kyiv says

Port damage cuts export potential 40 per cent, deputy PM says

Kyiv | Reuters — Russia has destroyed almost 300,000 metric tonnes of grain since July in attacks on Ukraine’s port facilities and on ships, the Ukrainian government said on Friday, underscoring the war’s threat to global food security. In summer, Moscow quit a U.N.-brokered deal that had allowed exports of Ukrainian grain through the Black

The cycle of convection currents in bin-stored grain when ambient air outside the bin is cold and the grain is warm.

Snuffing out grain storage problems before they begin

Grain is an excellent insulator that can hold warmth and moisture, so management is key

Nobody wants to deal with heating, spoiling grain, so it’s important to monitor grain temperature and keep stored grain cool and dry by regular aeration or turning. High moisture and warm temperatures in grain allow for rapid growth of insects, fungi and possible production of mycotoxins. Why it matters: All the best field practices in