ABSTRACT
Sanitation or cleanliness is an overlooked component of safe and cost-effective grain storage. Good sanitary practices benefit the grain manager in several key areas. Aside from the obvious safety hazards including explosions and personnel exposure when working with grain containing excess particulate matter, it is beneficial to store clean grain because of the decreased costs associated with aeration and insect management. Aeration is much more efficient in clean grain because of reduced air flow resistance when compared with aeration in unclean grain. Unclean grain promotes rapid insect, mite, and mold activity and grain deterioration. Fumigant penetration can be affected because of smaller air spaces in unclean grain resulting in poor insect management. The effectiveness of pesticides applied to stored grain to protect against insect attack is also greatly reduced in unclean grain.
