Almost 60 years in grain storage and handling. Site design, equipment selection, installation, millwright work, dryer service and preventative maintenance.
Almost 60 years in the grain storage and handling industry. The grain division sits alongside the equipment side of the business, which reflects how we have always described the goal: handling all our customer's agricultural needs, from seed to storage. Services include full design and site layout, equipment selection, expert installation, routine and preventative maintenance, custom high-quality millwright services, and complete dryer service.
TRULAND has been in the grain storage and handling industry for almost 60 years. Our goal has always been to handle all our customer's agricultural needs, from seed to storage, and the grain division is the storage end of that.
We design and lay out grain systems, help you select the right equipment, install it, maintain it, and keep it running with millwright and dryer service. That is a different kind of work than selling a machine. A grain system is built once and lived with for decades, so the decisions made on paper at the start are the ones you deal with every harvest for the rest of the system's life.
Our services cover full design and site layout, equipment selection, expert installation, routine and preventative maintenance, custom high-quality millwright services, and complete dryer service.
The most expensive mistakes on a grain system are layout mistakes, because they cannot be undone later. Everything else can be added to or replaced. Where the bins sit cannot.
The first question is not bin size, it is flow. Grain comes in from the field, gets handled, dried if it needs it, stored, and eventually leaves by truck. Every one of those steps is a place where trucks and equipment have to move and wait. A layout that works beautifully with two bins can strangle itself once there are five, because the trucks have nowhere to turn and the leg is in the wrong place to serve the new ones.
So we lay out for what the site will eventually be, not just what is going in this year. Bin locations, leg position, catwalk runs, conveyor and auger paths, receiving pit, load-out and truck circulation all get planned together. Even if you are only building part of it now, knowing where the rest goes prevents the second phase from being wedged in awkwardly.
Then there are the site constraints. Grade and drainage matter, because water runs downhill toward whatever you build and grain and standing water do not belong near each other. Soil bearing capacity determines foundation design. Electrical service capacity is a common and expensive surprise, since dryers, fans and legs together draw a lot of power and upgrading service later costs more than sizing it correctly at the start. Access from the road for semi traffic, distance to the existing yard, prevailing wind, snow drifting patterns and setbacks all bear on the layout.
Doing this on paper is cheap. Doing it after the concrete is poured is not. Full design and site layout services are the part of our work that pays back the most quietly.
The starting point is your actual production, not your best year. Average yield across your acres, by crop, gives you the bushels that need to go somewhere. Then decide what share of that you want to control on-farm rather than deliver at harvest.
The reason to store is control. Storage is what lets you keep harvesting when the elevator line is long or the elevator is closed, which in a wet fall is worth a great deal on its own. It is what lets you sell on your own schedule instead of into the harvest window when everybody else is selling. It is what makes drying on-farm possible, which lets you go into the field earlier at higher moisture and get the crop out ahead of weather.
Sizing tends to come down to a few practical questions. How many bushels do you need to move per day at peak harvest, because that sets receiving and handling capacity more than it sets bin size. How long do you intend to hold grain, since long-term storage demands more of a bin's aeration and conditioning than short-term does. How many crops and how many varieties do you need to keep separate, which often argues for more bins of moderate size rather than fewer large ones. What is the truck logistics reality at load-out.
Bin count versus bin size is a real tradeoff. Larger bins cost less per bushel and take less ground. More, smaller bins give you segregation, easier management of a partially filled bin, and less exposure if something goes wrong in one of them. Most operations end up with a mix.
It is also worth planning the expansion you are not building yet. Operations grow, and a site laid out with room for the next bin is a much cheaper place to add one.
Drying capacity is usually the real bottleneck at harvest, not storage volume. The combine can only run as fast as the wettest grain can be moved through the dryer, so an undersized dryer turns into machines sitting still on the best harvest days of the year.
Size the dryer against how many wet bushels per hour you need to handle at peak, and be honest about the moisture you actually intend to harvest at. Removing points of moisture is not linear, and a dryer rated at one moisture removal will move far fewer bushels per hour when you are pulling several more points out of the crop. Rated capacity is a comparison figure, not a promise for your conditions.
Quality is the other half of drying. Grain heated too aggressively gets stress cracks, and stress-cracked corn breaks down in handling, produces more fines, is discounted at the elevator and stores poorly because those fines pack into the center of the bin and block airflow. Drying too far costs you as well, since every point of moisture below target is weight you sold and were not paid for.
Handling is part of quality too. Every auger, drop and transfer breaks some grain. Systems designed with fewer and gentler transitions come out ahead over a season, which is one reason conveyors and well-designed leg systems earn their place on high-volume sites.
We work with Meyer and Superb grain dryers along with Farm Fans dryers and parts, and provide complete dryer service.
Drying gets grain to a moisture it can be stored at. Aeration and conditioning are what keep it there.
The mechanism people miss is that stored grain does not go bad uniformly, it goes bad in pockets. Temperature differences inside the bin drive slow air movement, which moves moisture from warm grain to cool grain and concentrates it in one place. That pocket goes out of condition first, and by the time it is detectable at the surface it is usually well established.
Aeration prevents that by keeping the grain mass at an even temperature, moving it down toward outside temperatures in the fall and holding it cool and uniform through winter and spring. It is a temperature management job more than a drying job.
Doing it well takes fan capacity matched to bin size and grain depth, an unloading and distribution setup that does not concentrate fines in the center, and someone actually monitoring temperature rather than assuming. Coring a bin after filling, pulling the center out to remove the fines that collected there, is one of the highest-value habits in grain storage.
We work with Brock pneumatic systems, Brock conditioning fans and heaters, KLEENair systems and Grain Management Systems for this part of the job.
Millwright work is the structural and mechanical side of a grain system: legs, towers, catwalks, support structures, conveyors, distributors, spouting and everything that carries grain and holds equipment in the air.
It is custom work by nature. Every site is a different arrangement of bins at different distances and elevations, and the structures that connect them get built to fit. Getting it right means grain that moves where it should at the capacity you need, with structures rated for the loads they carry and safe access for the person who has to service them.
Getting it wrong shows up as a bottleneck you live with for twenty years, spouting that plugs, catwalks that are unpleasant or unsafe to walk, and equipment mounted where nobody can reach it to maintain it. Serviceability deserves attention at the design stage, because a component nobody can get to easily is a component that quietly does not get maintained.
We provide custom high-quality millwright services, and we work with Honeyville bucket elevators, catwalks, conveyors, support structures and towers.
A grain dryer is the hardest-working machine on the site during the weeks it runs, and it sits idle the rest of the year, which is a combination that produces problems. Rodents, dust, corrosion and stiff bearings all accumulate quietly during the off months.
Complete dryer service means going through it before it is needed: burner and ignition system, gas train and safety controls, moisture sensing and calibration, fans and motors, bearings, metering rolls or discharge, augers and transitions, cleaning out accumulated fines and trash. Fines in a dryer are a fire risk, not just an efficiency issue.
Calibration deserves its own mention. A moisture reading that has drifted costs money in both directions, either by overdrying grain you sold by weight or by putting grain in the bin wetter than you think, which is how a storage problem starts.
The right time for this work is well before harvest, when parts are available and a technician can be scheduled. In October everyone needs the same part on the same day.
The whole system deserves the same treatment. Routine and preventative maintenance done in the summer costs a fraction of what a failure costs during harvest, in both repair cost and downtime.
The usual pass includes belts, chains, bearings and drives on legs and conveyors, checked for wear and alignment. Motors and electrical connections, including control panels, moisture and rodent damage. Fan and aeration systems run and confirmed working, ducts and intakes clear. Bins inspected for roof damage, sidewall and seam condition, sealing, ladder and safety equipment. Augers and spouting checked for wear and worn spots. Grain handling safety equipment, guards and lockout points confirmed present and functional.
The failures that hurt most are the ones that stop the whole site: a leg down, a dryer that will not fire, a control panel that shorted. Those tend to be preceded by symptoms that were visible in July.
Get on the schedule early. Everyone wants this done in September, and September is too late to be starting.
Brock on-farm grain storage systems. Meyer and Superb grain dryers. Brock pneumatic systems. Brock conditioning fans and heaters. Farm Fans dryers and parts. KLEENair systems. Grain Management Systems. Honeyville bucket elevators, catwalks, conveyors, support structures and towers. We also stock a large inventory of Hutchinson and Westfield.
To talk about a new system, an expansion, service on what you have, or getting on the preventative maintenance schedule, contact your nearest TRULAND store.
External sources are provided for reference. For anything specific to your machine or your operation, call the store nearest you.
Almost 60 years in the grain storage and handling industry. The grain division sits alongside the equipment side of the business, which reflects how we have always described the goal: handling all our customer's agricultural needs, from seed to storage. Services include full design and site layout, equipment selection, expert installation, routine and preventative maintenance, custom high-quality millwright services, and complete dryer service.
Flow before bin size. Grain has to come in, get handled, get dried, get stored and leave by truck, and every one of those steps needs room for equipment and trucks to move. Lay the site out for what it will eventually become rather than only what you are building now, since leg position and bin locations cannot be moved later. Then work through grade and drainage, soil bearing, electrical service capacity, road access for semis, and setbacks.
Start from your average production by crop rather than a record year, then decide what share you want to control on-farm instead of delivering at harvest. Peak daily throughput usually matters more than total volume, because it sets your receiving and handling capacity. Also consider how long you intend to hold grain, how many crops and varieties you need to keep separate, and truck logistics at load-out. Segregation needs often argue for more bins of moderate size.
By wet bushels per hour at peak harvest, at the moisture you actually intend to harvest at. Rated capacity figures assume a specific amount of moisture removal, and pulling several more points out drops real throughput substantially, so a rating is a comparison number rather than a promise for your conditions. Drying is usually the true harvest bottleneck, so an undersized dryer means combines sitting still on the best days of the season.
Because stored grain does not spoil uniformly. Temperature differences within the grain mass drive slow air movement that carries moisture from warmer grain to cooler grain and concentrates it in a pocket, and that pocket goes out of condition first. Fines collected in the center of the bin during filling make it worse by blocking airflow. Even aeration, adequate fan capacity, coring the bin after filling and actually monitoring temperature are the defenses.
The structural and mechanical side of a grain system: bucket elevators and legs, towers, catwalks, support structures, conveyors, distributors and spouting. It is custom work because every site places bins at different distances and elevations. Done well it delivers the capacity you need with structures rated for their loads and safe, practical service access. Done poorly it becomes a permanent bottleneck and equipment mounted where nobody can reach it to maintain it.
Well before harvest, ideally in summer. A dryer sits idle most of the year and accumulates rodents, dust, corrosion and stiff bearings, so it needs a full pass through the burner and gas train, safety controls, moisture calibration, fans, motors, bearings and accumulated fines before it is needed. Fines are a fire risk, not just an efficiency issue. Scheduling in September is too late, since every operation needs the same parts and technicians on the same days.
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