Sii­kar­la Farm

– We have over 300 hec­ta­res of arable land whe­re we grow wheat for the broi­lers and bar­ley for the finis­hing pigs, as well as rape­seed and peas for crop rota­tion, Kus­taa Sii­kar­la says.

Drying and sto­ra­ge capaci­ty for grain is genui­ne­ly nee­ded. All the grain grown is used on the farm as ani­mal feed, and addi­tio­nal grain is also purc­ha­sed.

– We pre­vious­ly had an old unit of about 40 cubic meters. The new equip­ment is a double dryer: two 60-cubic-meter units. We use wood chips for hea­ting. The old dryer is still in use and is used to dry, sort, and process seed grain. The lar­ge volu­mes des­ti­ned for feed and sale are dried in the new dryer, Sii­kar­la explains.

The equip­ment upgra­de was imple­men­ted insi­de the exis­ting dryer buil­ding. Work began in March, and the first grain was dried at the end of July. The mac­hi­ne­ry was com­mis­sio­ned a week later than ori­gi­nal­ly sche­du­led.

– The ove­rall solu­tion works well, and now we can run the dryers con­ti­nuo­us­ly.

– When we real­ly got into drying, we had to focus a lot during the first week. At first, a set­ting or sen­sor might have been slight­ly off, but tho­se were fixed quickly. For example, if a hatch didn’t open, the auto­ma­tion was smart, so no disas­ter could hap­pen. The rest of the sea­son went as smooth­ly as if we had been drying with it for years, he says.

Ant­ti’s tech­nical sup­port has hel­ped whe­ne­ver nee­ded.

– It’s great that tech­nical sup­port has its own expert to assist, so we didn’t have to go through all the details with the sales­per­son, Sii­kar­la notes apprecia­ti­ve­ly.

– We’­ve been able to har­vest more, and efficiency has inc­rea­sed sig­ni­ficant­ly.

Sii­kar­la also sees the invest­ment as an enabler.

– Now we don’t have to think about drying capaci­ty for the next 20 years. We can focus on other deve­lop­ment areas on the farm.

He recom­mends Ant­ti’s grain drying solu­tions to any­one loo­king for smooth drying ope­ra­tions. When con­si­de­ring a new invest­ment, he sug­gests visi­ting other farms.

– Eve­ry farm and buil­ding site is unique, so it’s good to see how dif­fe­rent solu­tions have been imple­men­ted. People are welco­me to come and take a look at our setup as well, Sii­kar­la hints.