The wet conditions are leading to lots of calls about harvesting and storing and drying wet beans. Charlie Hurburgh has been on the radio with the following information
The short answer is this:
Harvest works best (least damage) with beans 13-15% moisture.
Safe storage moisture is 13% for just through the winter, 12% for into next summer, and 11% for a year or more.
With a full aeration floor in the bin, beans up to 15% can probably be dried with a small aeration fan, beans up to 17% can probably be dried with a big drying fan (no added heat).
Heated drying can be done with caution. Don’t raise drying air temperature by more than 20 degrees and don’t get drying air below 45% relative humidity. Contact an agronomist or Ag engineer for more advice.
Here are some links to good information:
News article by Charlie Hurburgh
/CropNews/2009/1019hurburgh.htm
Soybean Drying and Storage bulletin
/Publications/PM1636.pdf
Soybean storage and drying tips website
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/soybean/production_storagetips.html
Here are more grain drying and storage links with great info as recommended by Greg Brenneman:
The first and best website I go to on grain drying and storage is Bill Wilcke’s website at the U of Minn. At the bottom of the web page, it also contains links to several other good websites. Take a look at any of the web based publications, handouts, articles and the FANS program that Bill has.
http://www.bbe.umn.edu/Post-Harvest_Handling_of_Crops
Another one I use occasionally is
http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/postharvest.htm
For information on Natural Air Drying, see:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/DC6577.html
For information on soybean drying,
http://www.soybeans.umn.edu/crop/harvest/