It was a pleasure to meet you and the team of Genuine Seeds. Many thanks for your courtesy during my visit.
Here are some quick comments from me – may I seek your help to kindly share with the others (I don’t have their mail ID’s). Apologies for seeking your help to pass on the message –
1. The processing infrastructure is latest and single pass reversible drying is perfect for Sweet Corn. The control room with its visual display of temperature, air flow, drying time and humidity was pretty impressive.
2. I appreciate the work done to reduce the mechanical damage. Some further ideas –
a. Consider lowering the height of the conveyor belt from sorting to dryer (then the zig-zag fall arrangement will not be needed)
b. Work on the “let down belt” to the dryer bins to reduce the fall of the cobs
c. Consider rubber pads in the packing storage bins
3. I appreciate that this is the first season with processing during the rains and here are some observations and suggestions –
a. During rains there is water collected in the dry cobs conveyor from bins to sheller. This is not advisable and I suggest to cover the conveyor so that a person can walk under the covers to inspect the conveyors also if needed. I understand this could take a while, and so in the interim the practice of starting the conveyors 10 mins before unloading the bins would be useful to prevent cobs falling into a flooded conveyor.
b. Since ambient humidity would be higher there will need to be an adjustment of air temperature or drying duration. May I suggest that the Prairie and Syngenta representatives are involved in any discussions involving changing drying parameters – so we make the right choices.
c. Since there is no proper road, during the rains there are places where its slushy. May I suggest keeping some extra pebbles in stock – they can be spread in areas where the soil is not firm.
As discussed we would be considering a visit to your site with senior leaders in Aug (likely to be 13th or 14th Aug) – is that ok? Taweesak or Sirinya will contact the site team for further discussions regarding this.
Thanks and Best Regards,