Paying for Grain Cleaning? When Your Own Cleaner Makes Sense

What your own cleaner can change

If you pay to have grain cleaned every season, your own cleaner may help reduce that recurring bill. Cleaning on the farm can also help recover grain you can sell and address quality deductions. The useful question is simple: what work would a Metra cleaner do for your farm, and is that work worth the cost?

Start with the cleaning bill you already pay

Look at what you spent on outside cleaning last season. If you also pay to move grain there and back, include those trips. These are real expenses you can compare with cleaning on the farm.

A cleaner becomes more interesting when you have the same job year after year. Instead of paying someone else for each lot, you can put that work through your own setup. You still pay to own and run the machine, so the comparison starts with the grain you actually handle—not the biggest machine available.

Keep more useful grain in the saleable lot

The cleaning charge is only part of the opportunity. A lot may contain useful grain mixed with material you need to remove. The job is to separate that unwanted material while keeping as much good grain as practical.

Metra identifies reduced cleaning charges, reduced grain losses and a larger saleable grain fraction as ways on-farm cleaning can add value. Where unwanted material causes a quality deduction, cleaning may also help address that deduction.

That is why equipment selection matters. The right setup should match what you need removed from your grain. Metra can help choose the machine and settings for that job.

If an outside service and your own setup leave you with the same saleable grain, compare what each costs to do that job. If the cleaning results differ, include that difference too. The aim is more value left on the farm after the work is paid for.

Choose a setup that fits your workload

Tell Metra which crops you handle, what needs removing and roughly how much you expect to clean each year. Include the equipment you already use. That gives the team a starting point for choosing a suitable setup and preparing a quote.

Compare the cost of owning and running that setup with the cleaning expenses it could replace. Include electricity, your time, upkeep and any additional grain-handling equipment you would need. More regular use spreads ownership costs across more grain; occasional small lots may still be cheaper to send out. Iowa State University Extension’s machinery-cost guide provides a worksheet if you want a detailed estimate.

See what your grain needs

You do not need to choose the model or work out the settings before contacting Metra. Start with the crop and the cleaning problem. Metra can help select equipment and discuss a sample test so you can see how your material separates.

Contact Metra to discuss your grain and a setup that fits your farm.