June 1997
Kwik Kleen Designed For On-Farm Quality Control
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
Sales of the Kwik Kleen have increased steadily in recent years: 240 units were sold in 1994, 365 in 1995, and just under 500 last year, according to Dan Norwood, vice president of Triangle Industries in Cooperstown, ND, which makes the portable cleaner. The company has sold roughly 1,800 of the grain cleaners over the last decade; some to grain elevators but mostly to farmers in the Northern Plains.
There are two models: the 572, which retails for $5,345 and has a cleaning capacity of 2,500 bushels per hour; and the 772, which retails at $6,970 and cleans 3,500 bushels per hour. To cut costs, some growers rent the cleaner, while others may go in on a partnered-purchase.
The cleaner can be used for sizing certain grains; thus, thin kernels can be taken out of malting barley, and fine material from sunflower that can cause dryer fires.
At full capacity, the cleaner will take wheat with 4% to 5% dockage down to 1%. "Customers have said that wheat with 15% to 20% dockage can be brought down to around 2% with the cleaner. I've had at least five guys tell me that," says Norwood. n