Grain cleaner reduces mice impact

This is branded content for Beulah Machinery.

Farmers in the prime farming regions plagued by mice have continued to investigate ways to minimise the hit to their back pockets.

The purchase of a grain cleaner has been the logical answer.

With loads of grain rejected for containing high levels of mice droppings, many have been looking into grain cleaning options, according to Beulah Machinery manager Travis Hengen, Cowra.

"It has been devastating for many," Mr Hengen said.

"Experts are warning that it might be some time before we can expect the mice problems to let up and even longer before the true cost of the damage they have done is realised.

"We've been fielding a lot of enquiries from grain producers needing to clean up their samples.

"The GCS Grain Cleaners have been in huge demand, and they seem to be doing an excellent job dealing with the problem from all accounts."

For Queensland cattle and grain producer Wayne Mead, Waluca Farming, Dalby, the timely purchase of a GCS Grain Cleaner has proven a real cost saving.

"We purchased the 60t/hr GCS Grain Cleaner to grade mice droppings out of the sorghum," Mr Mead said.

"We were getting loads rejected so we made a quick decision to grab the last grain cleaner available at Beulah Machinery at the time.

"It has been awesome! We haven't had any loads rejected since and it's as simple as to use. We were amazed at how much rubbish it removes.

"It's saved us a lot of money already. We would have had to pay up to $28/t to get it graded. Overall, we will grade up to 1000t this season so it's around a $28,000 saving straight up.

"We also put it to work grading dirt out of the wheat. We plan to use it for the wheat, barley, chickpeas and grass seeds into the future. Ideally, we'd like to set it up, so we grade everything we put into storage.

"Originally, we were looking at a smaller cleaner, but we are glad we got the larger one in the end. It just gives us a lot more capacity."

GCS Grain Cleaners are air-powered and designed to clean seed for farm and commercial use.

The cleaner comes in 5, 15, 25, and 60t/hr capacity with 0.5 to 3.3kW of power. It features no screens, handles all grain types and is an easy five-minute setup.

"Particularly good for cleaning barley ..."

"We found it was getting increasingly difficult to get grain cleaned so we knew we had to look at getting our own system. We bought a 20t/hr GCS Grain Cleaner and fitted it on a trailer. It has been useful. It's quite simple to set up and to use. We found it particularly good for cleaning barley and takes out any dirt from down crops."

- Neil, Parkes, NSW. (GCS 20t/hr Grain Cleaner)

"Unbelievably happy with the seed we've done ..."

"We've always tried to clean our own seed. We bought the 20t/h GCS Grain Cleaner to compliment another cleaner without a fan. We cleaned the wheat, barley, and lentil seed. It did an excellent job especially getting all the light stuff out. You try to keep your seed as clean as you can. We've been unbelievably happy with the seed we've done. It's better than some of the new bagged seed you get. With how we have it all set up, I don't think we could find anything we can't clean. We've already had a few neighbours coming over to check out our system."

- Andy, Rainbow, Victoria (GCS 20t/hr Grain Cleaner)

"Saved us a lot of worry ..."

"We purchased the GCS Grain Cleaner late in 2020. We couldn't get wheat graders when we wanted them so having our own cleaner saved us a lot of worry. It was great knowing you can do the job yourself when you need it done and if we needed a bit more seed we could just go and grade it without any hassles."

- Rodger, Molong, NSW. (GCS 10t/hr Grain Cleaner)

"Saved us a heap of time ..."

"We knew we were going to have to grade the oat seed this year. It had three inch straw through it and it was going to make sowing difficult. Finding people to do the grading is hard out here so we decided to get our own cleaner. We ended up putting both the oats and barley though the grader and it did a really good job. We didn't have any block ups on the sowing rig. It was plenty good enough to go through and saved us a heap of time. The 5t/hr cleaner was more than good enough to get the job done. Down the track we might look to upgrading to the 10t/hr model."

- Jack, Parkes, NSW. (GCS 5t/hr Grain Cleaner)

"Paid for itself already ..."

"We purchased the cleaner to clean our own oat seed. We only had a small lot to do, and we couldn't get anyone to come and do it at the time. Around January/February when we need it done, the contractors are all out west doing the big jobs and it's always a problem getting anyone. Our choice was to buy in new seed or get a cleaner and do it ourselves. As far as I'm concerned, the cleaner has paid for itself already. If we'd bought more seed and our own was still sitting in the shed, the mice would have eaten it all anyway. The GCS Cleaner is simple and works well. It looks like we have 100 per cent germination in the oats now - so it's done a good job!"

- Gavin, Tamworth NSW. (GCS 5t/hr Grain Cleaner)

This is branded content for Beulah Machinery.