Soya Bean Harvest Completed

The 2012 Soya Bean harvest was good in terms of quality, not so good in terms of yield.  The crop experienced a 6-week drought during February and March which really hit it at a bad time.  Nonetheless we were pleasantly surprised with how well the Soyas held up under the circumstances.

Our first photos show our four John Deere combines working in various lands.

The Soyas are transferred directly from the combine harvesters to our fleet of Richard Western trailers that deliver them to the main complex.  The first port of call is the weighbridge.  We keep accurate records of each load from each land so we can calculate the exact yields per land.

From the weighbridge the  trailers proceed to the intake area.  We have two separate locations where the beans can be offloaded.  Firstly, in our main grain silos if a standard grade soil is required, or alternatively to our specialised bean plant which enables us to pass beans over two gravity tables to achieve seed grade quality.

The photographs below show the Bean Plant intake area.

Interior of bean handling facility.

Depending on the customer our Soyas are often put through a cleaner.  This is normally not necessary when the Soyas are sold for mixing into animal feed for the livestock industry.  Our picture shows the residue from the cleaner, which is itself high quality protein and is sold as livestock feed.

A view of part of the extensive silo facilities at Sandstone Estates.

The Soyas have barely come through the system when the first big trucks arrive to load for customers.  Sandstone markets its grain nationally, which means that we work to optimise the price per load.

These pictures show loading into custom designed Superlink side tipping grain trailers.

Sandstone was one of the first farms in the Eastern Free State to commit heavily to Soyas and this is turning out to be a wise decision.  International Soya prices have been strong and are rising.