I continue to learn more about what MH/MF produced beyond farm equipment and this is such an example. So some of you probably already know about this, but I ran across this on the Massey Harris Heritage Page and was posted by someone called "The Massey Ferguson Historian". I did not know MF made bins, grain dryers and mobile augers. The feller that posted these pictures were of the brochures he has and according to him they are quite rare and apparently this grain handling system was popular in the UK. Any of our friends across the pond remember these? Again these are not my pictures, they belong to said owner. 

Cheers,
           Dakota

Hi Dakota 
I'm from across the pond and used to use a MF Butler Grain Drying System like in the photos that you posted. It was in the early 1970's when I worked in Surrey. 
We had four bins holding about fifty tons each. We had heaters on them powered by Calor Gas. You may call it LPG I don't know. 
I left the fans on one night I remember because I wanted to cool the grain down when a thunderstorm came along and I had to get up onto the bin to put the lid on in the ttorrential rain and lightening everywhere. I can still remember the experience fifty years on.
Alan

Hi Alan,

Very interesting! Yes if you are referring to LPG we also call it propane here in the states. Do you know if anyone still has or is using these systems? Here in the states I have heard of farmers hooking their propane fueled tracors up to their grain dryers and letting them run all night. Course I don't think anyone does it anymore as mostly everything now is electric. 

Hi Dakota 
I don't know of anyone using the MF Butler System now. I now live in Norfolk with is on the east side of the country in the grain growing area. A lot of farmers over here use ventilated floor grain stores where ambient air is blown under the heap of grain using electric fans in most cases. 

The bins we had in Surrey had electric fans on them and the augers were electric as well. We only used the gas burners if the humidity was very high. 
Thanks for posting this post. Another topic to discuss. 
Alan 

Interesting, with the wetter climate over there, do farmers have more issues with getting their crops to dry down enough before they harvest them? I know here if a farmer takes his corn ,beans, wheat etc., to the elevator and if the moisture is higher (I think its 15%, someone correct me if I'm wrong) he essentially gets a penalty. Your welcome, I enjoy posting stuff like this as I like history anyway and being able to talk to people about it (like you) who either have worked with it or know about it, its just fascinating to me. 

Dakota 
I think our system over here is different to yours. Farmers here mostly dry their grain on their own farms. By and large farmers have their own dryers unlike you where I think you harvest the grain and then take it to an elevator. 
You are correct about 15% moisture is the standard for selling grain to a merchant. Anything higher and we would get deductions for moisture. 
It is of course better to harvest under 15% moisture. No drying costs but we would harvest at 19% moisture if we had a big harvest to get in.
Alan 

 I know some of the smaller farmers (less than 1,000 acres) in my immediate area do haul directly to the elevator, but for everyone else they have their own grain handling and drying system. So in that aspect there's not much difference between US and UK farmers as I thought. Still interesting nonetheless. 

Dakota 
I learnt something yesterday. I was under the impression that US Farmers hauled their grain directly to an Elevator. Clearly this is not the case. As they say you are never too old to learn. 
Some farmers around here I think tend to have larger combines than they actually need. This gives them the opportunity to combine on the better days when the moisture is lower. Works in some years. 
Alan 

Alan,

Very true and I know in my immediate area there are at least 3 farmers I can think of right now that have 2 combines. 2 of the farmers have JD S680/690 combines that have 400 bushel grain capacity, but they farm well over 2,000 acres. The other farmer still uses two old JD 9500 combines from the 90s, but when there's a few days with no rain chances, he can really boogie with them and pretty well get all of his harvest done.