Purdue News
Purdue News
November 22, 1996
The service is beginning just as farmers are considering how to use or market their just-harvested grain.
The service is free to Indiana producers, grain handlers, processors and plant breeders during the first year of testing. There is a suggested limit of two samples per farm and five samples for each grain elevator or processor.
For corn, the grain composition analysis tells producers the amount of protein, starch, oil and moisture in their crop, as well as kernel density. For soybeans and soybean meal, the test provides quantitative values for moisture, protein, oil and fiber. This information is important to farmers who feed their grain to livestock or who plan to soon market their grain for specific attributes.
The tests are non-destructive and use a state-of-the-art near-infrared light analyzer to test the kernels. According to Dirk Maier, assistant professor of agricultural engineering and director of the Grain Quality Laboratory, the tests are quick to do, and results can be sent out two days after the lab receives the sample.
"We normally mail the results out, but we can respond by fax or by e-mail if that is how the producer would like to get the information back," he said.
Farmers who have their grain tested also will be given test results from various hybrids grown throughout Indiana, including those grown at the Purdue Agronomy Research Center and the Purdue Animal Sciences Research Center.
"Farmers like to compare their crops with other crops, and this gives them a chance to do that," Maier said. "This might be especially important to a producer who grows grain only to feed his livestock and doesn't take it to an elevator."
Testing provides an additional benefit for livestock producers, because it gives them specific nutritional information about their crop. "For example, there is significant interest in growing high-oil corn for livestock," Maier said. "We can tell them if the oil content is 3 percent or 7.5 percent or what it might be. We can do the same thing with the protein content of high-energy feed. This takes some of the guesswork out of feeding their livestock. Rather than using some artificial standard number to calculate their livestock feed ratios, the producers can use the actual numbers."
Knowing the percentages of the grain quality factors will also help those who are interested in marketing or buying grain based on these factors. "Currently, marketing is based solely on grade. In the past there was no significant incentive for a farmer to grow grain for certain characteristics other than grade," he said.
That may soon change, however, as more companies or end-users look to buy grain for specific qualities. "For example, it makes more sense for a company that produces corn starch to buy grain that has a high starch content."
According to Maier, marketing crops based on quality traits desired by end-users can increase the value of crops by 10 cents to 40 cents per bushel. "For the 1994 to 1995 marketing year, if just 10 percent of Indiana's corn and soybeans had been marketed this way it could have generated as much as $43 million for Indiana producers," he said.
Samples to be tested should be 450 grams of whole grain (roughly one pound). The service prefers dry grain, but is able to test any sample if necessary. Samples should be sent to the Purdue Grain Quality Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1146. Those with questions about submitting samples should contact Jenni Briggs, laboratory manager, at (765) 494-9772, or can e-mail questions to grainlab@ecn.purdue.edu
Cumulative data about grain grown in Indiana also can be found on the World Wide Web at https://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~grainlab
swt/maier.analysis/9611f34
Source: Dirk Maier, (765) 494-1175; e-mail, grainlab@ecn.purdue.edu
Writer: Steve Tally, (765) 494-9809; e-mail, tally@ecn.purdue.edu
