Efficient grain storage and handling has become a key profit driver for our farming operation at Moree.
When marketing our grain, we all look for the highest price from a reliable trader, broker or end user. At any point in time the price varies and while ever we lock ourselves down to selling at a certain point in time, say at or around harvest, we become very vulnerable to poor prices as end users lie in wait with their empty silos and attractive quick payment terms to take ownership of our grain and warehouse it for future use when they know prices could be higher.

On farm grain storage is the answer to vastly increasing our opportunities to make a sale at some point in the future at a higher price. No longer being locked into a short time frame to sell we can now easily have 6 to 18 months of opportunities to find a sale. With interest rates at an all-time low it has never been cheaper to hold grain on farm and borrow for cash flow.

The key to be able to do this is the right silo complex of good quality sealable silos and an automated aeration control system. A good outload system with silos connected by conveyor can also make loading trucks quick and simple and enable value adding by blending to standards of moisture, test weight and protein if needed.

All these capabilities we have on our farm have been made possible with the help of Control Unlimited. From the beginning of switching to using a 3 phase generator to power most of our silo complex, to having trouble free set and forget aeration controllers, to having the right soft starters, variable frequency controllers and timers and auto cut off for equipment failure.

Control Unlimited has been there at every step of expanding our silo complex.  What would have been extremely daunting for a farmer who has trouble using technology, now is so simple to use and maintain.

We have had many opportunities to better the price of our grain, carrying grain into the recent drought with very marked increases in price being one example. There are occasions, not very often, when prices can be higher at harvest, and then we hear loud and clear from the proponents of no on farm storage.
Harvest management is another key reason to use on farm storage, a little higher moisture in the morning is not a problem so the headers get going early.
 

Control unlimited has given us the ability to store and handle our grain trouble free and that with great confidence we can deliver quality grain after prolonged storage.

Jon Wilkinson,
Grain grower at Wilkinson Farming
Moree, NSW