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Storing animal feed for long term emergencies for homesteads and small farms
Last year I had stored several hundred pounds of corn in 50 gallon, metal food grade drums. It was supposed to feed my livestock in case of a long term emergency that effected JIT or my ability to purchase feed. The drums were mouse and rat proof. They were not bug and mold proof. The bugs may have come with the feed or gotten into it while in transit or when I opened the drums to access the feed. The bugs were not that bad, the mold however was. The fermentation process caused heat that in turn caused condensation to form in the drum due to daily temperature changes in our temperate climate. This in turn provided more moisture to the corn and made a more hospitable environment for the mold to grow. The corn eventually made a nice mulch and killed the weeds under it.
The stock still needs to be fed and H5N1 is still mutating. So I had a nice chat with the manager down at the local feed mill this week. According to him trying to store corn with a moisture content of above 15.5% is an invitation to mold. Corn stored in an unventilated container is going to mold. To combat mold several things have been done with an eye toward increasing dry air flow to discourage mold.
Years ago corn was stored on the ear in narrow cribs about three feet in width, that provided gaps for the air to circulated around the cobs. These cribs were usually build into the walls of wooden barns and equipment sheds and ran the length of the shed or barn. The roof provided protection from rain. Other corn cribs were narrow structures, set off the ground on blocks with a roof and slatted wood sides that allowed for sufficient air flow. My family had one of these on the old farm. It made out of white oak and was empty when it was hit by a bad wind storm that folded it up like a collapsing house of cards. Mice and rats were a problem. Black snakes that fed on the mice and rats were also an issue.
Later round wire corn cribs were built and set off the ground so air could circulate from the bottom upward. These were followed by ones made of corrugated metal. For longer term storage they were equipped with vents that reached from the outside to the center of the crib to provide for more air circulation. In the grain mill on dry days fans and blowers are used to force additional air through the stored grain.
His suggestions:
Do not store corn in metal barrels in a damp basement or below ground part of a bank barn. This will at least keep some moisture out of the corn. Do not pack the corn tightly into the barrel. Find some way to allow air to circulate around the corn. Putting a small platform in the bottom of the barrel and setting the corn in sacks on top of it, to allow air to circulate under the corn, may help. Try not to open the barrels on days when the humidity is high. Have smaller rat/mice proof containers to store the feed for immediate use as opposed to the larger ones for longer term storage. (I am using smaller galvanized metal trash cans for this purpose.) Lastly don't buy more feed than can be used before it spoils.
He also mentioned that in the "old days" grain wagons were flat and the grain was not that deep in the wagon, this discouraged the conditions needed for mold to grow, as opposed to the funnel type farm wagons of today. Corn stored in these types of wagon is so deep that mold can form in the corn in the center of the wagon.
As an aside. Decades ago my father stored soybeans in the more modern type wagon. It was stored in an equipment shed with a good roof. The grain was used for seed the following year and we got a good crop from it. The reason it was stored in the wagon was that prior to this Dad had stored it in sacks on pallets in the garage. We had a problem with rats and that was the first and last time it was stored in the garage, which was attached to the house.
The stock still needs to be fed and H5N1 is still mutating. So I had a nice chat with the manager down at the local feed mill this week. According to him trying to store corn with a moisture content of above 15.5% is an invitation to mold. Corn stored in an unventilated container is going to mold. To combat mold several things have been done with an eye toward increasing dry air flow to discourage mold.
Years ago corn was stored on the ear in narrow cribs about three feet in width, that provided gaps for the air to circulated around the cobs. These cribs were usually build into the walls of wooden barns and equipment sheds and ran the length of the shed or barn. The roof provided protection from rain. Other corn cribs were narrow structures, set off the ground on blocks with a roof and slatted wood sides that allowed for sufficient air flow. My family had one of these on the old farm. It made out of white oak and was empty when it was hit by a bad wind storm that folded it up like a collapsing house of cards. Mice and rats were a problem. Black snakes that fed on the mice and rats were also an issue.
Later round wire corn cribs were built and set off the ground so air could circulate from the bottom upward. These were followed by ones made of corrugated metal. For longer term storage they were equipped with vents that reached from the outside to the center of the crib to provide for more air circulation. In the grain mill on dry days fans and blowers are used to force additional air through the stored grain.
His suggestions:
Do not store corn in metal barrels in a damp basement or below ground part of a bank barn. This will at least keep some moisture out of the corn. Do not pack the corn tightly into the barrel. Find some way to allow air to circulate around the corn. Putting a small platform in the bottom of the barrel and setting the corn in sacks on top of it, to allow air to circulate under the corn, may help. Try not to open the barrels on days when the humidity is high. Have smaller rat/mice proof containers to store the feed for immediate use as opposed to the larger ones for longer term storage. (I am using smaller galvanized metal trash cans for this purpose.) Lastly don't buy more feed than can be used before it spoils.
He also mentioned that in the "old days" grain wagons were flat and the grain was not that deep in the wagon, this discouraged the conditions needed for mold to grow, as opposed to the funnel type farm wagons of today. Corn stored in these types of wagon is so deep that mold can form in the corn in the center of the wagon.
As an aside. Decades ago my father stored soybeans in the more modern type wagon. It was stored in an equipment shed with a good roof. The grain was used for seed the following year and we got a good crop from it. The reason it was stored in the wagon was that prior to this Dad had stored it in sacks on pallets in the garage. We had a problem with rats and that was the first and last time it was stored in the garage, which was attached to the house.