Grain losses are considerable due to delayed drying because of unfavorable natural effects. The agricultural economy and rural enterprise in South China are relatively developed. Individual small parcels of land are merged into bigger farms run by some skillful and specialized farmer household. Hence mechanization of grain post-production operation becomes possible and urgent needs. In recent years, all kinds of drying equipment rapidly increased especially. The typical drying patterns in South China, taking Zhejiang province as an example, were investigated and the performance data were tested. A method was developed in order to evaluate the economic adaptability of grain post-production drying patterns for different regions with various technical and economic background, farm scale and natural conditions. It was applied to analyze three grain dryers used in some farms in South China, NEW-PRO-60 (made in Taiwan TYPE I for short), YSLG-6 (made in China, TYPE II), and 55A160 (made in Japan, TYPE III). The analysis results indicate that the TYPE m is adaptable for regions where the technical and economic conditions are better and the volumes are over 341 ton/ year; TYPE ft is suitable for the regions where the technical and economic conditions are low and year operation volumes are 150 to 250 ton/year, or the TYPE I can be considered; In the same year operation volume, TYPE m is suggested to be used only in the regions with high labor value and grain price, but it has high reliability and advanced automatic control skills. The study results can be used to instruct the farmers to choose the best economic drying patterns based on the local comprehensive technical and economic conditions. In the regions with the value of labor is 25 yuan/day (in most parts of south China), the necessary economic operation volume of the three dryers should be higher than 279.1, 189.4, 341 ton/year respectively. In the regions with the value of labor is over 50 yuan/day, the necessary economic operation volume is only higher than 176.5 ton/ year. According to the year operation volume of 240 ton/year, the average maximum of a 6t-dryer, the necessary economic labor value should be over 43.58 yuan/year. The necessary economic year operation volume of the three dryers should be over 277.7, 188.5, 339.2 ton/year, respectively, according to the grain price of 1.5 yuan/kg, purchasing price of government. The necessary economic grain price should reach 9.65 yuan/kg calculated according to the year operation volume of 240 ton/year for all three dryers.
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