What oil processors say after storing seeds in silobags?
Why is the silobag ideal for organic crop storage? Find out at the Grain Bags online event – “Increase your farm profit. Choose silobag storage!”, on March 17, 2021.
1. Who were the guests?
Vlad Anania – Orgapic engineer, Ionel Apostu – Prutul SA Silage division manager, Emil Bercaru – Bunge company, Dan Nicolae – Expur SA manager, Dragoș Anghelache – farmer from Vrancea county, Cristi Grigore – farmer who works 600 ha, Dacian Săbău – farmer who works in an ecological system, Felicia Tulai – Luna Solai administrator, Laura Dosoftei – Optim Agro Total administrator and an Oltina company representative.
Narcis Ranghiuc, Grain Bags general manager, explain all about the silobag technology, emphasizing its benefits. The event was moderated by journalist Tudor Calotescu.
2. "The crop quality is perfectly maintained in the silobag - an essential aspect in organic storage"
When storing grain or feed in silobag, compared to the traditional storage methods, you are sure that your crop will not be contaminated or altered, the seeds have the same quality when unloading, as at the time of storage and this is important, especially when we are talking about ecological products, says Vlad Anania, Orgapic company engineer.
“For the past two years, we have stored in silobags with minimal losses and an excellent production. We had losses between 1% and 2%, caused by animals’ attacks, especially mice. The most important fact is that the product quality is maintained, even when storing for a longer period of time.”
Ecological agriculture is much more demanding than conventional agriculture, says Vlad Anania. It is influenced by the weather conditions, the technique used, the special equipment used, as well as by the farmers in the area cooperation, to avoid accidental herbicides. “When producing organic crop, you have to be careful and catch the optimal sowing time, choose quality seeds and close the chain with storage, in order to produce quality seeds, that satisfy the customer needs.”
He also mentioned that one of the problems he is facing at the moment is that he doesn’t find Romanian companies interested to buy ecological products, and that is why he exports a lot.
3. "The silobag storage solution is a winner for those who do not make mistakes in the calculations"
Prutul SA company representatives plan to store over 40,000 tons of sunflowers in silobags, stated Ionel Apostu, Silos division manager, during the online event. He explained that the sunflower seeds he has stored from September to March, were perfectly preserved in the silobags, because the ends have been properly sealed.
“By storing in silobags we increase our storage capacity, this means we reduce average costs per location, a great advantage in front of the competition. We find that in addition to increasing the storage capacity, we also increase the receiving capacity on each location. Checking the crop quality, the price evolution, calculating the amount, show us that storing in silobags is profitable.
Two years ago, we stored sunflowers in silobags and we did not exceed 0.2% loss. If you exceeded this percentage, it means that you face a storage technology error. When talking about the classic metallic or concrete silage, losses through aeration are somewhere from 0.6 to 1.2%, it depends on the technology, the number of hours of aeration, temperature, humidity etc. If we put 500 dollars X 0.5% loss difference, it already means 2.5 dollars just from losses”.
4. Bunge company stored over 5,000 tons of rapeseeds in silobags
“We have been using silobag technology for 6 years and we believe that the silobag is perfect for storing rapeseeds. Last year, we stored more than 5,000 tons. The products were stored at low humidity, 8% and 2%, foreign body. We choose to store at the lowest humidity possible, to eliminate any risk. The average storage period is between 7 and 8 months”, said Emil Bercaru, Bunge company.
5. "This year, we bought our own silobag loading machine"
Dragoș Anghelache, farmer from Vrancea county, has been storing wheat in silobags for more than 3 years.
“This year we bought our own silobag loading machine, because we plan to increase the silage capacity with silobags. Until now, we have stored only wheat in silobags, because we have a flour mill for our bakery. However, we intend to also store rapeseed and sunflower in silobags, but that depends on this year harvest”.
The farmer also plans to implement on a small area, organic crops.
6. Grain Bags Romania's first customer: "Those who don't try, don't win!"
Cristi Grigore works 600 ha; he stores all his crop in silobags and he accepted to share his experience at our online event.
“The first silobag installed by Grain Bags in Romania, was in our yard. At that time, 6 years ago, I stored 200 tons of wheat. At the moment, we still have around 800 tons of corn stored at 14% and 19% moisture. You can test with confidence, those who don’t try, don’t win!”
He also added that, through silobag storage, he was able to sell at a good price. For example, at the end of January 2021, he sold sunflower with 2.37 lei/kg, compared to 1.7 lei/kg, that was the price during harvest.
