Flaman Rentals Blog

How Bench Custom Grain Cleaners Change Farming Fortunes

Posted by Jeff Brown Nov 19, 2024

"Every farm’s going to be different,” says James Vanbeselaere. “Every area will be different, depending on what they're trying to clean.”  As a Flaman Sales Specialist who’s installed and fired up a lot of customized Bench grain cleaners for enterprising customers, he should know.
 
What he’s able to demonstrate to them nowadays is a far cry from grain cleaning’s beginnings. The fanning mills of the early 1800s sifted out dockage like cracked kernels, small stones, straw, and chaff, but they missed some weed seeds. That led to the Carter disc cleaner, and finally entire seed-cleaning plants. Although those plants became more numerous, farmers still contended with transport distances and costs, plus the time spent waiting their turn to unload.

Grain Cleaning Comes Home
“You're just paying an expense to have the other guy clean it,” James says. “A lot of custom cleaners charge about a dollar a bushel.  We have customers that clean 10 to 20,000 bushels a year.   So, they're spending, you know, upwards of 20 or $30,000 just to have their own grain cleaned. So why not keep that money in your own pocket and put it towards your own system? You'll be building an asset out of it."
  
That’s why Flaman Grain Systems took the next logical step in the evolution of grain cleaning. It forged a partnership with Great Falls, Montana manufacturer Bench Industries to make on-farm grain cleaning a viable option for more producers.
 
“That relationship was already formed before I started at Flaman,” James says. “So, I guess I’ve just continued it. They fit our needs. We can sell on-farm units in the right sizes for on-farm use.”

Identifying Your Needs. Formulating Your Solutions.
Bench builds their quality grain cleaners to customer specifications, often using farmer-supplied commodity samples as a starting point. They offer a variety of mobile and mini grain cleaners, plus accessories like the popular Airens screens.

“Bench will do a lot of the customization themselves.” James explains. A customer’s specifically recommended combination could start with a portable or modular air screen machine, mini air screen machine, mid-size grain and seed cleaner, mobile screen machine and include a vital accessory like a debearder/rethrasher, vibratory conveyor, and separator.

Long-Term Reliability 
Meanwhile, the annual tens of thousands of dollars farmers can save doing their own grain cleaning could be multiplied by decades. Flaman has a record of choosing grain cleaners based on their potential long-term durability – choices that have often panned out impressively.
 
“We’ve got a lot of cleaners that have been around for a long time,” James says. “Twenty, thirty, forty years old. They last.”

“VFD” spells power savings and convenience.
Bench custom grain cleaners feature a frequency drive (VFD) that can reduce power consumption by up to 70%. It’s connected to the electrical panel, a single central point of power connection that gives you speed control over your incoming and outgoing augers.



Nationwide Home Grain Cleaning 
Wheat farmers are most likely to take up what Flaman and Bench have to offer. There is also demand for cleaning other commodities. Bench equipment can process other cereal crops like oats and barley, as well as oilseed crops like canola, flax, soybeans, and sunflowers, and pulse crops like peas, chickpeas, and beans.

With Flaman operating its own screen distribution facility in Saskatoon, the two-company partnership can help diverse farming operations across the Prairies – and beyond. We try to be coast to coast, all across Canada.” Wherever they go, these units carry their value with them. 

Cost Savings, Care, and Convenience
“We’re pretty competitive in the price range,” James says. But he adds the real economic benefit is the money and time farmers can save. “They’re cleaning their own grain, so they’re not paying for it.”

That’s before a slew of design benefits that make grain cleaning a more pleasant process from the moment your unit arrives on your farm. You can read about them here.

James answers two final questions you might already be asking.
What kind of customer does Flaman believe is a good fit for a Bench custom grain cleaner? With the variety of options Bench offers and the spectrum of commodities and working conditions they can handle, there’s only one answer: 

“We’re open to everyone.” 

So, how do you find out if a Bench custom grain cleaner is right for you?

“Contact your local farm and sales Rep.”

You can do so by calling or visiting your nearest Flaman location. Our grain cleaning experts will be happy to introduce you to the convenience, benefits, and economy of owning your own Bench custom grain cleaning system.
Posted in Product Information | Tagged with Grain Cleaning | More articles by Jeff Brown