Monitoring a commercial barley store in the north of England and comparison with a computer simulation of germination

The temperature, moisture and germination variations in a commercial barley store were monitored over two seasons. Initial mean temperatures of 49 and 46 degreesC were observed. These were higher than the safe temperatures fo r germination predicted by the computer simulation, but still produced malt able barley This suggested that the model was too conservative. During cool ing the air was heated and the bed dried by an average of 1.5%. This 'dryer ation' effect helped the barley to withstand the higher temperatures. Diffe rential fan control and off-peak running were tested and the higher 6 degre esC differential control was shown to reduce rewetting. However lower and m ore uniform temperatures were achieved with a 2 degreesC differential. The downward flow system was essential to avoid condensation and did not pose a ny other serious problems. Some of the maltsters' reservations regarding co oling below 15 degreesC, due to concerns over secondary dormancy and reheat ing to steep temperatures, should be alleviated by this work. Given the ran ge of fan control options that still need to be investigated, computer simu lation of the cooling, drying and germination in storage is recommended as a lower cost option than commercial testing.