WHILE it was clear more research needed to be done into long-term grain storage in "sausage bags", South Eastern Premium Wheat Growers Association (SEPWA) project officer Aidan Sinnott said research he had done in the Esperance Port Zone (EPZ) had concluded that for the short-term grain bags were a useful and effective tool.
So long as they were not damaged or the moisture content was too high in the grain.
Mr Sinnott presented his findings from the two-year project at the 19th Australian Barley Technical Symposium at the Westin Hotel, Perth, last week to about 100 malting and breeding barley scientists and researchers.
The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supported project was conducted across the Esperance/Salmon Gums area on a number of trial sites after "a bit of conjecture of the quality of malt barley that has been stored in grain bags for an extended period of time" and "set out to allay worries of malt barley being stored in grain bags".
"I tried to do this as simply as I could," Mr Sinnott said.
He wanted to answer questions including if grain stored in the bags out in the paddock for too long was being cooked.
Mr Sinnotts also questioned if moisture moved around in the bags, if there were any other bag quality issues and looked at what was happening in the storage environment.
"I took a wide sample size," he said.
"Being close to the coast there are different average day temperatures across the EPZ and it's quite dramatic."
Year one of the project saw trial sites as far as 140 kilometres north of Esperance to as far as 150km north west, while in year two there were less sites north east of Esperance.
"The deal (during the second year) was I ran less bags but did a bit more intensive anaylsis on it," Mr Sinnott said.
SEPWA is a not-for-profit organisation with 30-35 sponsors.
The group supports 300 growers from the EPZ.
Mr Sinnott said while the number of growers in that port zone was declining SEPWA was "maintaining a constant base, which is really good".
He said SEPWA members contributed 80-85pc of grain produced in EPZ.
SEPWA has a staff of eight, with a mix of full-time and part-time employees.
"This time of year we have about 24 project trial sites," he said.
Variety trials conducted across the EPZ in 2019 including wheat (13), barley (10), LS wheat (3), canola (7), oats (3), lupins (1), field peas (1) and chick peas (1).
"We are starting to move into the pulse side of things as it is a bit of an emerging market in the EPZ," Mr Sinnott said.
"We are starting to look at different species and how they can influence our exports."
Mr Sinnott said he used "tiny tags to monitor temperature" in the grain bags - set to monitor every 20 minutes.
"I basically got a lot of details over three months or so," he said.
"The second year I had enough capacity to log technical data for up to 10 months and last week I extracted the final samples."
Mr Sinnott tested the grain in the bags at various depths - 5 centimetres, 10cm, 30cm, 50cm, 70cm and 90cm and right inside the bag lining, as well as the outside temperature to compare the difference.
"Four of the main bags that were successful in year one had between 27 and 74 days in the bags," he said.
"All ranged 10-15pc moisture and about 11-12pc protein - so decent quality high 50s-low 60s."
Mr Sinnott said there were protein changes over time but they were "negligible differences over the three months".
Every time he tested he ensured that he was "taking a different sample".
Mr Sinnott found the average temperature sat about the 24 degree Celsius mark.
"(There were) stable temperatures - I found that interesting - I did not expect that," he said.
"I did think that the temperature of the grain would respond to the UV radiation.
"The grain was responding, but not as we had thought in the past - even on the hottest day of 47o it only got to 28-29o (5cm inside the bag), so it was still not necessarily cooking it.
"Most lines averaged 22o through the different depths."
Mr Sinnott said according to his research, grain could be stored in "pretty safe condition in grain bags up to four months, as long as they are arranged in a reasonable manner, don't have holes, hail or pest damage and there's no infiltration of moisture or insects propagating".
"The geographical location plays a big part in that average temperature as well," he said.
"The further inland we are the hot constant temperatures would provide a different story, but this is the story in the EPZ."
Mr Sinnott said the study was not looking at long-term storage because "most farmers realistically kept their grain in the bags for three months - that's the bottom line".
"What we need to be careful of is that we don't take away the logistical benefits of these grain bags in WA," he said.
"Taking that away from farmers would cause problems for them around harvest.
"We need to be mindful that we keep including grain bags in our thinking."
It was concluded that research needed to be done into the long-term storage of grain in bags but for the short-term it was still a useful option to allow the farmers to get their paddocks sorted.
Growers could put grain in bags rather than put it in hard storage, allowing them to segregate bits on their farm, as well as deliver it into a long-term storage system.