A NORTH Yorkshire company has launched a new system to help arable farmers reduce grain drying costs and increase drying capacity.

Allmet of North Cowton, near Northallerton, says its Intelligent Dryer Control (IDC) System is the result of it's alliance with Swedish company Tornum AB at the end of last year which has seen the two companies share expertise and resources to focus on product research and development.

The IDC, is said to benefit customers by minimizing over drying and maximizing obtainable product quality, weight and prices and providing total process control.

Charles White, Allmet director, said: "Drying grain precisely is a complex process that you want to get right to maximise the best possible price.

"When you use manual methods you run the risk of not reaching the desired moisture content levels, or over drying. The IDC takes the guess work out of this by maintaining the average outgoing moisture content of the grain, despite large variations in incoming moisture content."

As an example he said that by overstepping the mark by drying to 13 per cent instead of 14 could typically add up to 20 per cent to the farm energy bill, giving an additional one per cent loss in weight and reducing the dryer's capacity by up to 16 per cent.

James White, fellow Allmet director, said: "The IDC optimizes the drying process by using intelligent software that adapts to conditions. There's no need for manual adjustments you have total control over the drying process and can change the grain type and drying recipe where ever you are, at the touch a button either from a PC or a tablet."

Available in four different standard kits, the system consists of moisture sensors and a control unit with a user friendly interface.

The first sensor is positioned in one of the upper drying sections and measures incoming moisture. The second is placed in the cooling zone, close to the dryer outlet.

Using information about incoming and outgoing moisture content, the control unit sets the speed of the dryer discharge to obtain the desired moisture content out of the dryer – regardless of outside climatic conditions.

Allmet was founded in 1953 and provides a complete service across all aspects of grain drying, handling and storage. It is at the forefront of product development having pioneered and patented one of the first mixed flow continuous grain driers.

Tornum AB is located in southern Sweden and is a European market leader in supplying complete grain handling systems for the agriculture and grain industries.

It has subsidiaries in Finland, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine with representatives in other countries.