China News Service, Hulunbuir, September 23. Title: From "feeling by hand" to "looking at data": Alpine farms and ranches have a "smart brain"
China News Service reporter Zhang Wei
In Hulunbuir in September, the sky is high and the clouds are clear, and the wheat waves turn golden. At 5:30 in the morning, the drying ground of Shangkuli Farm and Ranch is already busy. The wheat just harvested by the harvester, carrying field dew, was slowly transported by a conveyor belt into a newly built tall tower warehouse.
September 23 is the ninth "Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival", and harvest festival activities are ushering in various places. In Ergun City, Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, Enhe Farm and Ranch has set up exhibition areas for modern agricultural machinery, special agricultural and sideline products, and traditional food to visually demonstrate the results of the modern development of agriculture and animal husbandry. The newly built smart electric drying tower at Kuli Farm and Ranch in Hulunbuir Farm was put into use for the first time, with a daily processing capacity of 150 tons.
"In the past, when wheat was dried, the masters would climb up every hour to touch the grain pile and see the fire color. In late autumn, the top of the tower was very cold and windy, so it was not safe." In the control room, technician Liu Jun monitored the data flow on the big screen - the temperature of the grain pile was 42.3°C, the moisture content was 17.2%, and the wind pressure in the tower was normal. "Now, I can watch the whole tower while drinking water in the house."
This drying tower, which fills the gap in environmentally friendly intelligent drying equipment at Shangkuli Farm and Ranch, is the biggest “newcomer” in this autumn harvest season. And its arrival has changed far more than just the way a control room works.
The picture shows the newly built intelligent electric drying tower at Shangkuli Farm and Ranch being put into use. Photo by Sun Fengjun
Shangkuli Farm and Ranch is located in the alpine zone along the foothills of the Daxingan Mountains. In autumn, the temperature difference between day and night often exceeds 15°C, and the effective sunshine is less than 10 hours. Wheat and rapeseed have high moisture content after harvest. If not dried in time, they will become hot and moldy within three or four days, and a year's hard work may be wasted.
"To harvest quickly, you have to dry quickly. But in the past, coal-fired hot-air stoves were used to dry a batch of grain. It took five or six hours to get warm. When it came to continuous cloudy days, I was so anxious that my mouth blistered." Wang Fuli, a veteran worker who has been doing drying work for more than 10 years, recalled.
What's more important is that traditional coal-fired drying equipment relies on master craftsmen to judge the heat by "seeing and touching". The temperature difference at different locations in the grain pile may exceed 5℃, and it is not uncommon for the edges to be burnt and the center to be dry. “A lot of grain is lost during the drying season every year, which makes me feel sad,” Wang Fuli said.
The reporter saw at the scene that the intelligent drying tower is equipped with a fully automatic temperature control system and a multi-layer sensor array, and the temperature control accuracy can reach ±1°C. Temperature and humidity data at any location in the tower are transmitted back to the central control platform in real time, and the system automatically adjusts the hot air volume and drying rhythm according to the status of the grain pile.
"Look at this graph." Liu Jun called up the system interface. "The green one is the average temperature in the tower, and the red one is the temperature at the grain outlet. The two lines almost overlap. In other words, 'Every grain passing through the tower warehouse enjoys the same temperature treatment.'"
"We harvested well and planted well in the past, but the 'last mile' drying link could not keep up, and the quality of the grain was compromised." Deng Lijun, director of the Shangkuli Farm and Ranch Project Management Department, said that the new equipment adapts to the drying needs of wheat, rape and other grain and oil crops, making the entire chain of grain from field to storage controllable.
As the sun sets, the tower warehouse is still humming with work. The first batch of dried wheat pours down from the grain outlet, with moderate temperature, golden color and full grains.
