Different strokes for different folks I guess. Some of us have so much biomass that we really have no choice
2¢
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Hmmm, would you be down to try something new? We tried several rotary dryers last year but had a difficult time controlling feed rate and exhaust temp well enough to keep the heat from shaving points off our potency.
Since then we’ve developed another method that does the same throughput at the same price and cost, but it primarily dries using airflow instead of heat, so it doesn’t pose the same threat. We’ll be doing the testing next week you want to learn more about it.
Cheers!
Yeah but I think that’s because most of the baled hemp we see was left over from last season when people just baled and wrapped it cuz they didn’t know what else to do with it. If you’re going to use/dry it within 8 months or so it’s a fine solution.
Most folks I’ve seen bail do so because they didn’t have a drying plan set in place, storing stabilized dry biomass is much less of a headache than wet bales, even fresh bales frozen immediately don’t hold up, imho.
Giving wet bales 8 months seems incredibly optimistic to me as well. When talking about the preservation qualities of baling hemp, I personally compare it to rubbing salt on meat, its nowhere near what refrigeration or freezing can preserve. Which when it comes to that volume of biomass, the only answer can be to mechanically dry so you can store. Stable biomass that is stored properly can help you wait out the incredible lows in the volatile biomass market.
Guess it just depends on how you do it. I’ve been to TheClearScientists facility and watched pristine wet bales get popped open.
Beef can be stored for a year or so in the freezer. Properly salted and then hang dried, it can go for 10s of years, probably longer
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With a freezer or refrigerator, absolutely, but the logistics of storing that volume in a climate controlled facility are complicated and expensive to say the least. Just saying that its much easier to store and maintain beef jerky than it is beef.
I have seen wet baled and it was literally all mold
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This is the wild wild west of hemp, I’m pretty sure we’ve all seen the gnarliest bale to have ever existed. And I’m not saying you can’t achieve a level of preservation with baling (as long as you’re willing to go through all the extra steps that are going to be required of wet baling IE refrigeration, Nitrogen, Freezing, due diligence in sealing the bales properly ) I’m just saying why go through all of that when you could mechanically dry, and cut your expenses, logistics, and chances of failure/ loss of product?
Understandably its not an ideal option for all folks, but when you address this much volume, its the only sustainable answer. Again all of this is just IMHO, but I’ve seen all sorts of techniques in baling hemp, none have impressed me on a level where I would recommend it over drying your product.
Beef can be stored for a year or so in the freezer. Properly salted and then hang dried, it can go for 10s of years, probably longer
Such a Futurefact. You give off savage survivorman vibes. I feel like you would be able to tell me what types of mushrooms and berries are safe to forage.
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I’m confused, because you just said
Which one is it?
In the PNW? 100%. Come out here in the fall and I’ll take you mushroom foraging
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It’s about to be morel season here in Michigan.
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Wet baling does not require refrigeration, nitrogen, or freezing. All it requires is the proper wet baler. Which can be exponentially cheaper to rent than drying services. Which is why a lot of people went that route.
I too have seen wet baling disasters. I’ve also seen drying machines flop and ruin entire crops
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For how long can these untreated bales survive? Compare that number to how long you can store stabilized biomass in a non climate controlled area. Yes the initial cost of a dryer or even of a toll drying service can be rough (usually about $2.25 a wet pound depending on where you are). Which is exactly why its not the answer for everyone who grows hemp, but the fact of the matter is if you’re going to grow a lot hemp every year, you need a plan to dry it, every damn year, so owning a dryer is just a natural part of the process. Beyond it making logistical sense the ROI by toll drying your neighbors hemp (baled or not) can turn a drying bill into a source of income, as well as solve the drying problems of your neighbors, and helping you build a stronger network and community.
Fires are in inherent risk of anything that produces a flame, from matches to dryers with jet engines on them, fires are a fact of life. And dryers ruining whole crops is another symptom of the wild wild west. Its important to pick a company with proven drying technologies, and not fly by night ones that just re brand Chinese dryers trying to get in on the hemp boom, and leave you unsupported after sale.
Batch drying systems (like rotary dryers) will always run the risk of ruining large portions of crop if a fire event were to occur, so I would always recommend a continuous feed system. This style dryer greatly reduces the risk for lost product in a fire event. Continuous feed systems allow for detection of the flame source, and specific dousing of the fire directly, usually only contaminating a small portion of the material. After a quick clean out, it would be ready to run.
Whats easier for a cowboy to keep/maintain in his shed? Beef with salt on it or dried beef jerky?
Salt cured beef. That’s why the sailors packed their meat in salt instead of just drying it out and bringing it.
Salt cured beef is also dry, like jerky, but the salt also prevents bacterial growth.
The curing process required a high level of treatment and careful control of climate in order to achieve those preservation qualities, much like the nitrogen and refrigeration that you claim is unnecessary.
Even companies that sell balers say that after 3 months heavy degradation of product takes place, and if you’ve ever been around those untreated bales you can tell fermentation that happens after just days. And these are the companies that make money on getting you to bale that are saying this.
Take your meat across the ocean however you want to man, no skin off my nose. But dry biomass is easier to store and maintain than wet biomass. And mechanically drying biomass is the only way you can handle that volume of hemp within that timeframe (harvest to when the hemp goes bad, both in a bale and not) because baling isn’t a sustainable way to preserve your crops, drying it is.
You say that, but I’ve spent multiple days at the largest hemp processing facility in the world and the majority of what they are accepting is wet baled.
I was also on site when 2k acres of hemp was wet baled with an oracle baler in S Oregon, with no nitrogen or careful climate controls
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Agree
Disagree. Wet baling is faster and cheaper.
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Yeah but baling/drying isn’t either/or, when you bale it you still have to dry it. Virtually everyone we supply dryers to takes in wet bales. Baling is just a quick way to extend the shelf-life a bit because there’s no other [economical] way we know of to store wet hemp.
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