"It's saved me the cost of a grain elevator and leg system," says Cecil Manness, Domain, Manitoba, about his air-powered "blauger" grain mover which uses a grain vacuum, a 60-ft. augerless grain auger and 250 ft. of flexible 4-in. dia. tubing.

Manness, who farms with sons Rick and Norm, uses a Conveyair grain vacuum to push grain from a dryer to storage bins located up to 250 ft. away. To get grain up into the bins, they bought a 2-wheeled, lightweight carriage from an auger manufacturer and mounted 60 ft. of rigid 4-in. dia. metal tubing on it. A 4-ft. length of flexible tubing at the lower end of the "blauger" simply attaches to lengths of tubing running across the yard from the grain vacuum-blower.

"We call it the 'blauger' because it combines the work-saving features of a grain vacuum blower with the handiness of an auger," says Cecil. "It lets us use our stationary grain dryer with a minimum of operator time and effort."

The Manness's got the idea for the unit after facing a grain drying bottleneck. "It took too long to truck grain around the yard from the drying bin to storage bins, and sometimes the yard was so wet that we couldn't get trucks close to the bins," says Cecil. "This system is far less expensive than a U-trough or an elevator leg. As soon as our drying bin fills up, we run the 'blauger' for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs., moving about 2,000 bu. of wheat or barley per hour. We chose the Conveyair because it can push grain up to 300 ft. A lot of vacuum systems can't push grain that far."

To strengthen the "blauger", the Manness's welded 4-in. wide channel inn underneath the tubing. A hitch on the end of the channel iron makes it easy to move the "blauger" around the yard. Manness says that if he could do it over, he'd shorten the "blauger" to only 50 ft. "The shorter the auger, the stronger it is," he notes.

The connecting flexible ground pipe is made up of 5, 10 and 20-ft. sections, connected with cam lock fittings which make it easy for one man to move and connect the grain handling system. Manness says that when his yard is wet at grain-hauling time, he can use the"blauger" to blow grain out of a bin to an area where the gravel is good enough that he can load trucks.

He uses a Deere 4430 to power the Conveyair. "Any tractor over 100 hp could handle it," he notes.