It isn’t fancy. It isn’t hi-tech[1]. It’s just an auger[2] with a motor on the end. A bin sweep.
But what a back saver. You set it on a post in the middle of the bin above the unloading auger, plug it in, and then all you have to do is give it a kick every minute or so to keep it chewing away at the corn, and sweep up the few inches of corn it leaves behind.
It used to be, back when I was a lad, we shoveled every bushel[3] that gravity didn’t carry away for us. Nowadays once we’ve rassled the sweep into the bin the work is done.
There are lots of fancier gadgets that you can spend a fortune on for moving grain, but an auger with a motor on it is a marvel to me.
1. “It’s not high technology, it’s just nuts and bolts” Graduated by John Hiatt.
2. An Archimedes’ screw, for the Sheldon Cooperish among you.
3. A bushel is of course 4 pecks, or roughly 1 1/4 cubic feet. The bin we were cleaning out today has about 2500 bushels that have to be moved by the bin sweep, or in the good old days, by shovel. When you’re on the business end of a shovel you gain a quick appreciation of what a bushel is and what an auger and an electric motor will do for you.
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