If drying to other than 15.5 percent, use the equation here to figure shrink value. Gross returns to drying is the commercial discount minus the value of shrinkage. The worksheet at the end allows you to determine the profitability of drying vs. immediate marketing using drying cost, moisture discount rate and market price figures most applicable to your situation. Thus, with an annual volume of about 68,500 bushels of corn, one would be ahead to purchase the specified dryer rather than take the commercial moisture discount. However, with less than that volume, it would pay to take thediscount or consider a dryer with a smaller annual ownership cost.
Overdrying corn is an expensive practice.
When corn is dried below this level, the producer loses pounds or bushels of grain without being compensated by a higher price. Besides the weight loss, overdrying reduces dryer capacity and increases the chances of broken kernels and stress cracks in the grain, which may result in a discount for excessive foreign material. Corn dried to, say, 13.5 percent moisture content breaks much more easily during handling than does corn at 15.5 percent moisture. Farmers who are considering drying their corn should determine what these costs will be and compare them with the drying costs and moisture discounts at their local elevators. At a 2 percent moisture discount rate, drying corn is profitable at high initial moisture levels and relatively high market prices.