Robots Now Available. Call (833) 497-6268 to order for 2026 harvest pricing!
Robots Now Available. Call (833) 497-6268 to order for 2026 harvest pricing!
Chad Johnson, CEO & Co-Founder
Six years ago, I was focused on two things: keeping people safe around electricity and power lines, and getting kids excited about STEM careers, particularly within Nebraska’s electric utility industry. I spent my days in classrooms and communities talking about the invisible dangers of electricity and high-voltage lines and why the industry needed the next generation of sharp, curious minds.
Today, I’m still talking about invisible dangers. The industry has just changed.
If you had told me six years ago that I’d be spending my days talking about grain, grain bins and grain bin safety, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But here I am, learning everything I can about grain, how it’s stored, what it takes to keep it in condition while keeping boots out of it. In a lot of ways, it’s not that different from what I learned about boiling water reactors and how proper water chemistry is critical. In both cases, success comes from understanding that what you can’t see is often what gets you.
Grain bin entry remains one of the leading causes of farm fatalities in this country. And what happens to grain in the weeks and months after harvest – the heat, the cold, the moisture, the slow creep of spoilage – is a story most farmers and commercial grain facilities never fully see until it’s already cost them time, money or both.
Chad Johnson, CEO & Co-Founder
Six years ago, I was focused on two things: keeping people safe around electricity and power lines, and getting kids excited about STEM careers, particularly within Nebraska’s electric utility industry. I spent my days in classrooms and communities talking about the invisible dangers of electricity and high-voltage lines and why the industry needed the next generation of sharp, curious minds.
Today, I’m still talking about invisible dangers. The industry has just changed.
If you had told me six years ago that I’d be spending my days talking about grain, grain bins and grain bin safety, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But here I am, learning everything I can about grain, how it’s stored, what it takes to keep it in condition while keeping boots out of it. In a lot of ways, it’s not that different from what I learned about boiling water reactors and how proper water chemistry is critical. In both cases, success comes from understanding that what you can’t see is often what gets you.
Grain bin entry remains one of the leading causes of farm fatalities in this country. And what happens to grain in the weeks and months after harvest – the heat, the cold, the moisture, the slow creep of spoilage – is a story most farmers and commercial grain facilities never fully see until it’s already cost them time, money or both.
This harvest has been a wet one across a lot of the Midwest. And that has put a lot of farmers in a tough spot.
You know how it goes. The corn’s ready, the weather window is closing and the moisture is still running higher than you’d like. You’ve got a choice: sit and wait and risk losing yield in the field or go ahead and harvest and deal with the moisture in the bin.
A lot of farmers went ahead and harvested. Can’t blame them.
But here’s the thing: when you put corn in the bin above that 14 to 15 percent moisture mark, the clock is already ticking. Wet grain generates heat as it respires. That heat pushes moisture through the grain mass. And if the weather outside the bin keeps doing what it’s been doing lately, taking us on a rollercoaster ride, that problem can get away from you fast.
Farmers don’t need a lecture about how fast the weather can change. What I will say is this: the data backs up what you’re already seeing out the window.
Earlier this year, researchers published a study in Nature Communications showing that rapid swings between extreme heat and extreme cold are becoming more common and more intense. They call it “weather whiplash.” More than 60% of the world has experienced it since 1961, and it’s becoming more frequent.
Closer to home, the EPA has been tracking precipitation patterns across the Midwest. Here’s the number that stuck with me: while average annual rainfall has gone up about 5 to 10 percent, the rain we get during the four wettest days of the year has gone up about 35 percent. We’re not just getting more rain, we’re getting it all at once, in big events, at the worst possible times. Like we saw this year right before harvest.
That’s not bad luck. That’s a pattern. And it’s worth planning around.
So, you’ve got wet corn in the bin, and the weather outside is bouncing around like it can’t make up its mind. Here’s what can happen and what to watch for.
Big temperature swings.When a cold front rolls in fast after a warm spell, the grain near the bin wall gets cold quick. But the grain in the middle? It stays warm. That difference in temperature pulls moisture toward the cold grain, raises the moisture content in those areas, and sets up the exact conditions where mold and hot spots get started. If the corn was already a little wet going in, this speeds up spoilage.
Early hard freezes. A surprise freeze after a wet harvest is about as bad as it gets. Warm, moist grain that gets locked down by a sudden cold snap can form ice crusts along the walls and on the surface. That seals off your airflow and you may not know it until you’ve got a real problem on your hands.
Big moisture events and high winds. When you get several inches of rain, sleet or snow in a few hours instead of being spread out over several days, wind-driven moisture can find its way into your bins through vents, hatches and around access doors. Once it’s in the grain, it doesn’t stay put. It moves, it concentrates, and it causes damage.
Long stretches of fog and heavy dew. A week of foggy mornings and high humidity doesn’t feel like a crisis. But that persistent moisture slowly works into the top of the grain. Before long, you’ve got surface crusting and you might not notice until it’s already causing airflow problems.
The thing all of these have in common is that they move fast. Weather that used to give you a few days to react is now giving you hours. And wet grain doesn’t give you much room to work when you’re already behind.
Here’s what I tell people: you can’t stop a cold front. You can’t un-harvest wet corn. But you can stay on top of what’s happening inside your bins and you can respond before spoilage gets a foothold.
That’s what the Grain Weevil robot does.
The robot drops into the bin and levels out uneven grain, because those peaks and valleys are where moisture likes to settle and trouble starts. It breaks crust before it cuts off airflow and keeps the grain mass open and moving so your aeration system can do its job. That means more consistent conditions throughout the bin and fewer opportunities for spoilage to take hold.
Just as important, it gives you eyes inside the bin without putting a person in there. In a busy fall, when you’ve got a hundred other things going on, knowing what’s happening inside your bins without climbing in is worth a lot.
Grain bin entry is one of the most dangerous things you can do on a farm. If the robot can tell you what’s going on in there, you don’t have to climb in and find out for yourself.
We’ve had customers tell us the robot saved them 180 hours of confined-space bin entry with just four hours of operation. That’s not just time saved. That’s risk that never happened.
I came into agriculture from the outside and maybe that gives me a different way of looking at it. I’ve always known that the grain bin is one of the most unforgiving environments on a farm. What I’ve learned since then is that most of what happens in there is invisible until it’s already a problem.
This fall, bins across the Midwest are holding more wetter-than-ideal corn than anyone would like while weather conditions continue to swing from one extreme to the next. Add in the fact that October is bringing more 90-degree days than ever and you’ve got a challenging combination. But it’s far from a lost cause.
Stay on your aeration. Check your temps. And if you’ve got a Grain Weevil in the bin working for you, good. If you don’t, we’d like to talk.
Because the weather isn’t going to start cooperating. But your grain doesn’t have to suffer from it.
