A hot pocket can grow for weeks between probe checks
Grain holds heat. Insects, mould and the grain itself all give off warmth, and a pocket under the roof sheet or against a sunny wall keeps climbing.
Without grain silo temperature monitoring, most farm silos have no fixed sensors. A monthly probe only samples a tiny bit of 1,500 t.
A pocket can take off in days. A reading on the office computer does nothing at 2 am on a Sunday.
- Live insects in a load can fail the nil live insects standard at delivery.
- Warm, damp grain loses quality and can get downgraded.
- Fumigating by the calendar, with no pest data, feeds phosphine resistance.
How grain silo temperature monitoring works in your silo
- 1
Cables hang from the roof
Three or more cables carry a sensor every 1 to 3 m of grain height, clear of the fill stream and the outlet.
- 2
A roof node sends the readings
A LoRaWAN node sits outside the steel shell, reads every 15 to 60 minutes and sends by radio.
- 3
A gateway on the shed passes them on
It uses Starlink or 4G. No wifi, and no cable run back to the house.
- 4
You get the alert and the profile
The system checks each sensor against its neighbours and its own trend. You see the profile on your phone.
-
Wed 6:10 am
Silo 2 cable 1 sensor 4 at 29 °C, up 2 °C in 24 h. Urgent: check the roof sheet and run the aeration fan.
-
Fri 7:40 am
Silo 2 cable 1 sensor 4 back to 22 °C after 26 h of fan run. Profile is even.
What we put on each silo
We work out cable count and positions at the site visit, then check them with the silo maker or an engineer.
-
Multi-point temperature cables
Hang from the roof and report a temperature profile right through the grain.
A sensor every 1 to 3 m
-
Headspace and ambient sensors
Read the air under the roof and out in the shade, so the system knows when it's worth aerating.
Sealed, outside the grain
-
LoRaWAN roof node
Sits outside the steel shell and sends each reading by radio.
Reads every 15 to 60 min
-
Fan run sensor
Logs when each aeration fan runs, wired in under our electrical contractor licence.
Fan run time logged
-
Gateway with Starlink or 4G
Collects readings from your silo group and sends them to your phone.
Mains power, battery backup
What lands on your phone when a pocket heats
We start with set alert values, then tune them to each silo and grain.
-
Tue 6:10 am
Silo 2 cable 1 sensor 4 at 27 °C, 3.5 °C above its neighbours for 12 h. Probe the sun side and check the fans.
-
Wed 6:10 am
Silo 2 cable 1 sensor 4 at 29 °C, up 2 °C in 24 h. Urgent: check the roof sheet and run the aeration fan.
-
Fri 7:40 am
Silo 2 cable 1 sensor 4 back to 22 °C after 26 h of fan run. Profile is even.
Silo 2, cable 1, sensor 4
Dashboard view
- Sensor 4
- 29 °C
- Neighbour sensors
- 24 °C
- Headspace
- 31 °C
The same warm week, with and without cables
Without monitoring
- Day 1A pocket starts warming under the roof sheet.
- Day 12Nobody knows. The silo looks fine from the hatch.
- Day 30The monthly probe misses the pocket.
- Day 45Insects and mould turn up at unloading.
With monitoring
- Day 1The pocket starts warming under the roof sheet.
- Day 3The cable shows a rise. Your phone buzzes.
- Day 4You check the fans and probe that spot.
- Day 6Aeration cools it. The profile proves it.
A monthly probe versus a reading every hour
| Topic | Today | With monitoring |
|---|---|---|
| How often | About once a month | Every 15 to 60 minutes |
| What's checked | A tiny part of the grain | A profile through the depth |
| A pocket warms | Found at the next check, if at all | An SMS within days |
| Aeration working | Fans run, result unknown | Profile shows if the grain cooled |
Grain silo temperature monitoring across your silo group
Winter crops go into the silo hot, and summer crops follow in late summer. The aeration window is short, so we pair the cables with grain aeration fan monitoring.
A steel shell chokes radio signal, so the node sits outside and we test gateway coverage across the whole group. Grain on a pad suits grain bunker temperature probes.
Running a gin, mill or grain handler? Have a look at silo temperature monitoring for sites that hold other people's grain. Feedlots, see grain bin temperature monitoring for feedlot silos.
What grain silo temperature monitoring costs
We fix the price after a short scoping call or a site visit. It depends on silo and cable numbers, gateway distance and backhaul.
Get a quote for silo monitoringThe fixed price covers
- Cables, nodes and sensors
- Gateway and Starlink or 4G backhaul
- Installation and electrical work under licence 1513082
- Alert set-up and commissioning against a hand probe
- Support, tuning and cable replacement
What this won't do
- It's not fire detection or suppression, and not a certified safety system. Whatever you've already got stays in place.
- It doesn't replace insect checks, fumigation records, or silo entry and phosphine procedures.
- Readings come every few minutes. You get alerts and trends, but it doesn't run your fans.
- Sensors give you a good guide. Moisture content still needs a meter or a sample.