+ Подать объявление

For farmers› Storage

Grain storage and conditioning: moisture, drying, cleaning, pests

Moisture and dockage limits, drying and temperature control rules from Kazakhstan's Grain Storage Rules, plus practical tips for your own storage.

Grain condition by moisture (wheat)

The Grain Storage Rules (Ministry of Agriculture Order No. 4-1/573, 2026 edition) define four conditions for spring and winter wheat:

  • dry— moisture up to 14%;
  • medium-dry— 14 to 15.5%;
  • damp— 15.5 to 17%;
  • wet— over 17%.

Long-term storage requires dry grain. Damp and wet grain must not be loaded into silos. Until dried, it is kept only in stores with active aeration.

Dockage

  • By foreign matter, spring wheat is considered clean at up to 1%, medium-clean at 1–3%, and weedy above 3%.
  • Lots with excess dockage, self-heating lots, pest-infested lots and lots with foreign odours are cleaned first.
  • Harmful and quarantine impurities are removed; infested waste is taken away and destroyed.

Drying

  • Before drying in column dryers, grain is split into lots by moisture: up to 17%, 17–22% and above 22%.
  • Dried grain is cooled to no more than 10 °C above the outside temperature.
  • During drying, the laboratory checks temperature, odour, colour, moisture, gluten and infestation every 2 hours.
  • Do not overheat grain: overheating damages gluten and lowers the class.

Monitoring in storage

  • In steel silos, the temperature of dry wheat is checked every 3 days if the grain is warmer than +10 °C, and every 7 days at +10 °C or below.
  • The store is divided into sections of about 200 m², using temperature probes or remote thermometry.
  • A full technical analysis of the composite sample is carried out monthly.
  • Self-heating grain is moved and cooled immediately. It must not be mixed with sound grain.
  • New-crop grain must not be mixed with fumigated or self-heated old-crop grain.

Pests

  • Infested grain is cooled by active aeration or passed through cleaning machines and drying chambers.
  • Heat disinfestation in dryers is allowed only for food, feed and industrial grain.
  • Fumigation may be carried out only by licensed specialist organisations. Handling phosphine yourself is life-threatening.
  • Before storing the harvest, clean and disinfest the store and equipment.

Storage periods and losses

  • The maximum storage period for wheat and rye at an elevator is 4 years. The elevator must notify the owner at least 6 months before it expires.
  • Weight loss in storage is made up of moisture loss after drying, cleaning waste and natural loss. How natural loss is written off is set by regulations and the storage agreement. Clarify these terms in your contract with the elevator, and request conditioning reports showing weight before and after.
  • At least 10% of storage capacity is kept free as a reserve for moving grain.