Control crop store humidity and temperature online
Two awards (including one in the price less than £10,000 category) for best new product or innovation went to Martin Lishman Ltd for the Barn Owl Wireless system officially launched at the show in England and received an excellent level of interest.
The new store monitoring and control system uses a unique combination of radio and GSM data transmission and cloud computing.
It relies on access to the internet from anywhere in the world, without any need for software installation, to monitor and control pile-dry pedestals and fans, on-floor or underfloor cooling and drying systems, storage bins and silos.
Crop cooling and drying fans can be controlled automatically over the internet, avoiding trips to distant stores just to turn fans on or off.
Zonal control system ensures that unnecessary fans are turned off.
The potential cost savings are considerable, while the system can be used to bring crops such as grain to target temperature and moisture much more quickly.
Despite incredibly mild autumn conditions, some users of Barn Owl Wireless managed to reduce their grain temperatures to below 10 degrees Centigrade by the beginning of November, said Gavin Lishman, pointing to fine tuning of the control system.
Intuitive web pages enable the user to see what is going on in the store at a glance and in real time.
Historical data can also be viewed. If the user wishes, contract storage customers can also be given read-only access to see how their grain is being cared for.
Gavin Lishman is confident that additional functions such as wind speed measurement, security systems and carbon dioxide monitoring can be rolled out in due course.
