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Drying Soybeans
Too much heat, while high temperature drying soybeans, causes seed coat cracking, which results in splits. Some people recommend keeping the air relative humidity above 40% when drying. This limits the heat added to less than 20 degrees, since a 20 degree temperature increase cuts the relative humidity in half. Others recommend using temperatures up to 120 degrees. Avoid dryers that re-circulate the beans during drying, since this increases the potential for splitting.
Natural air / low temperature (NA/LT) drying is a good option for drying soybeans. The equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of soy beans with air at 40 degrees and 70% relative humidity is 13.6%. Warming the air five degrees reduces the relative humidity to 58%. The EMC at 45 F and 58% RH is 10.9%. Minimum airflow rates are 19% 2 cfm/bu., 18% 1.5 cfm/bu., 17% 1.25 cfm/bu, and 16% 1.0 cfm/bu. Drying times will be 20 to 30 days. Higher airflow rates result if the grain depth is reduced, so this should be considered to increase drying speed. NA/LT drying becomes inefficient as average temperatures drop below 40 degrees. Beans can be cooled to about 25 degrees, stored over winter, and dried in the spring.
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