A multi-stage harvest dryer (10) is provided for drying an agricultural harvest product (12), such as, for example, corn, sunflowers, beans, seeds, etc. The dryer (10) includes multiple drying stages (14a-14d) connected in sequence to dry a volume of harvest product (12) passed from one drying stage (14) to the next. Heat exchangers (16a, 16b, 18a, 18b, 18c) are located in the stages (14a-14c) to transfer heat to the harvest product (12) in each of the corresponding stages (14a-14d). The heat exchangers (16a and 16b) are radiant heat exchangers that efficiently heat the harvest product (12) via radiant heat transfer, with heaters (19a, 19b) being provided to maintain the heat exchangers (16a, 16b) within a desired temperature range. The heat exchangers (18a-18c) are condensers that efficiently recycle the heat within the dryer (10) by transferring heat back to the harvest product (12) by condensing water that has been evaporated from the harvest product (12) elsewhere in the dryer (10).