Abstract
Maize is the most cultivated and consumed cereal in Brazil, which is the world’s third largest producer of this grain. Estimated losses due to pest attack, especially pest insects and fungi, represent approximately 10% of the total production. The pre-cleaning phase allows the reduction of foreign matters and impurities (IM) present in the grains, which are used as food and shelter for stored grain pests. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of pre-cleaning on the physical and technological quality of corn kernels, during bulk storage in a silo-dryer. The grains were harvested with a combine harvester, at a moisture content of around 17% and 0.84% of IM. Part of the grains was submitted to pre-cleaning and subsequently stored in a silo, while the other part was directly stored in a silo-dryer. After pre-cleaning, the grains were sent to the silo-dryer with 0.12% of IM. Drying was carried out by blowing natural air through the grain and the process was completed when the grains reached approximately 12% moisture content. It was concluded that pre-cleaning provided lower hygroscopic equilibrium moisture, reduced the presence of insect damaged grains, and improved the technological classification of grains during storage.
Highlights
Resumo - O milho é o cereal mais cultivado e consumido no Brasil, ocupando a posição de terceiro maior produtor mundial
The moisture content varied according to the interaction between pre-cleaning and storage time (Table 1), showing an increase up to approximately 100 days, with a subsequent decrease (Figure 2A)
Pre-cleaned grains had a lower moisture content during the entire storage period (Figure 2A), showing that even though they had a lower percentage value of foreign matters and impurities than allowed by legislation, the reduction of those values leads to a decrease in the moisture content of the grain mass
Summary
Resumo - O milho é o cereal mais cultivado e consumido no Brasil, ocupando a posição de terceiro maior produtor mundial. O objetivo com o trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da pré-limpeza na qualidade física e tecnológica de grãos de milho durante o armazenamento em silo-secador. Pre-cleaning may play an important role in diminishing losses during storage by reducing the content of foreign matter and impurities in the grain mass, which serve as food and shelter for pests of stored products In this stage, a large part of the broken grains is eliminated, making it possible to store whole grains predominantly, which reduces the possibility of occurrence of pests, since there are secondary insect pests that attack only broken grains or even those grains already attacked by primary insect pests which damage whole grains. These impurities and grain fragments interfere with the porosity, making it difficult to aerate the grain mass, which leads to problems in humidity and temperature control of the stored product (Silva, 2008)
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