[AT] EPA to require farmers be half as dusty

[Indiana Robinson]

 But how the heck you could even remove 5% of the dust a combine in
> soybeans makes is beyond me.
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Hi John:
Actually it is fairly easy and fairly cheap... This is a problem that
I have looked at for some time and it was really impressed on me
Tuesday evening when we made a trip to Anderson IN (a couple of
counties north of me) to pick up a couple of Case VAC items. The
fellow I bought one from had found that he still had A decal set and a
Case clock and called me saying that I could have them. Soybean field
after field was being ran and a large number of them had two huge
combines running. One field had three. I never saw a single "older"
combine in the field... That surprised me a little.
The current problem was obvious. The whole area for most of the trip
was one huge dustbowl looking cloud. This area is so dry right now
that you could leave a trail of dust crossing a swimming pool. Driving
was difficult in many areas and frankly I don't see how people with
respiratory problems could even stay in their homes in that whole
area.
As a long time woodworker and shoe cobbler (and farmer) both of which
require very good dust / fume collection I am not new to the processes
(or dust).
Many combines here now use a blower to suck the dust from the
header/feeder-house area and blow it to the back and out into the air
using a large duct down the side.
The first step in cutting particulates is that you (all of us,
especially bigger farmers) must develop a mind set that involves
giving a damn about more than what you can do for yourself... You have
to be able to say that this is a problem and we need to try to steer
in a better direction. Most farmers do care including the fellow that
now farms my crop land. I can think of several locally though who just
don't care what problems they might cause others... Those guys
compound the problem for everybody. Much of the problem is that most
of the burden will fall to the farmer. The manufacturers don't really
care. They want to sell you a $100,000 plus plus plus machine and they
don't even care enough to grind off the sharp corners of most of the
parts. :-)  The food prices will not go up because there is no way for
the farmer to pass his cost on... He doesn't get to walk in the grain
elevator and say that his cost is up so he must have more money... He
just has to pretty much helplessly say "How much will you give me?".
Now back to the dust reduction... All it really requires is collecting
the dust with a centrifugal cleaner for a time and then dropping it on
the ground now and then with as little disturbance as possible.
Filters will not handle it.  Serious suction at both the front and
rear of the combine could feed into an un-powered separator much like
a "much larger" version of a small cyclone unit called a "Dust Deputy"
that is very rapidly gaining a lot of favor in woodworking circles. I
know of several guys who have bought them and they say it does does
even better than the demo.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4feGBoTU3c
Their website:
http://www.oneida-air.com/
The whole process could work much like pneumatic grain handling
systems but could use much less power since it would be handling dust
rather than heavy grain. The rotary air-lock concept would handle
dropping the collected dust on the ground from an outlet near the
ground.
Pneumatic grain handling:
www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/pdffiles/ae850.pdf
.
100% ? Of course not but possibly a 60% + reduction. 60% of "a lot" is
still "a lot". :-)
.
I'm trying to do my part... I'm planting grass. :-)
It has to be making my farmer a little nervous seeing 14 horses
wandering around eating grass... We are renting pasture based on 1
acre per horse and I am about full. I will hold back another 2.5 acres
this year just so I can make some existing areas work out better. I
don't want this thing to get too big but I might need to hold back a
chunk more after next summer. I may add about a dozen more customer
horses. It is a good thing that I am retired. :-) The set up is a lot
of work but once set up the labor is quite minimal. I make about 6
times off of an acre of horse pasture than I do from rented grain
land. If son Scott suddenly takes an interest in the horse enterprise
the grain farmer could be in trouble. :-)
It is not without minor problems but what is. One problem it does not
have is a lot of dust. :-)



-- 


Be tolerant of almost everything but intolerance...

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/robinsonsprucecreekfarms/