Recipient Organization
Golden Peanut & Tree Nut Company
P.O. Box 548
Camilla,GA 31730
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
(N/A)
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
60%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The objective of this research is to determine the feasibility of storing peanuts in hermetically sealed grain bags as an alternative to conventional methods of (1) storing farmer stock peanuts at harvest and (2) shelled oil stock peanuts after shelling and prior to crushing. Additionally, existing commercial equipment will be evaluated for loading and unloading the grain bags.
Project Methods
Objective 1: Farmers stock peanuts at three different moisture levels will be loaded into grain storage bags (aka Silo Bags). Using 2014 crop farmer stock peanuts, two (2) grain bags will be filled with approximately 40 tons of farmer stock peanuts each (Moisture content < 7%). Each truck used to fill the bag will have 3 farmer stock sample removed, graded, and evaluated for number of live insects, single kernel moisture content, aflatoxin, peroxide value, free fatty acids and seed germination. One bag will be unloaded after 30 and 60 d of storage. Each truck will be sampled three times and samples evaluated as above. A method for retrieving samples from the bag will be developed for subsequent studies using 2015 peanut crops. Using peanuts farmer stock peanuts from the 2015 crop, two grain bags will be loaded with approximately 40 tons of peanuts after conventional harvesting, curing, and grading (8% < moisture content < 10.5%). Each truck will be sampled and evaluated as in previous study above. Bag 1 will be sampled after 30 days storage, and unloaded after 60 d storage. Bag 2 will be sampled at 30, 60, 120 days of storage and unloaded after 180 days storage. All samples will be evaluated for standard farmer stock grade factors plus live insects, aflatoxin, free fatty acids, peroxide values, and seed germination. A second pair of bags will be loaded with farmer stock peanuts that have been graded using the high moisture grading protocol with10.5% < moisture content < 13%. Bags will will sampled and unloaded according the same schedule as the lower moisture 2015 crop bags. Each grain bag will be instrumented to monitor temperature, relative humidity, and oxygen concentration in the bag. Objective 2: Two grain bags will be filled with approximately 80 tons of shelled oil stock peanuts. Six samples for each bag will be obtained during filling. Bag 1 will be sampled after 30 days and unloaded after 60 d in storage. Bag 2 will be sampled after 30, 60, 90 days and unloaded after 120 days storage. Samples will be evaluated for moisture content, free fatty acids, peroxide values, and aflatoxin, and live insects. Each bag will be instrumented to monitor and record temperature, humidity, and oxygen concentration.