This years quality assesment

[wmoebis]

I suspect that we could have a lot of factors this year severe midge, green plus every other quality issue from Man. to Peace River.

I am wondering how everyone else asseses thier quality? Do you send harvest samples to CGC or SGS for third party or are you able to asses your own produce so you can market with knowledge of the quality of what you grow?

Or do you just go from company to company looking for best deal and price being satisfied with the buyers assesment?

I find that sometimes my degrading factors are not as big of issue if I can market on the samples attributes. However I have to know both before I can negotiate to my benifit.

So what is your best experience CGC, SGS or your own knowledge to market your quality one on one with merchant?

[Hopperbin]

For my area I like to just take samples to various buyers and judge my sample accordingly. I have a question, if you ask a grain company to send a sample away for grading are you then bound to take the lower grade if it comes back a lower grade? We are lucky to have competition here. How a sample is taken can have an effect on the amount of dockage so best to have good relations. Don't pull a Burbert :-))

[wmoebis]

It depends where they send it.

If you request that it is sent to the CGC for inspectors grade and dockage it will be independantly graded by them and there will be a certificate issued with thier results. The grain company is bound by law to pay at least this grade and dockage. Be sure you get a copy of these results, chances are the company will make you pay the CGC charge and these are "your" results.

Be sure they sent the sample to the CGC. If you don't they quite often send it to thier own head office quality control dept. In that case it would not be assesed by an independant inspector.

Even though it my be degraded, there may still be attributes that the grain company can use to blend and up grade stocks. This can be done by the company at the same elevator or transfering to another elevator or even blended at port. I have seen grain transfered from Man. to Ab. to be blended for grade improvement and that is not the CWB doing this it is the grain company and they make the money on it. So they may pay you extra toget your grain if they need it.

I think it is as important to know the percents of the factors that hold it into the grade as the ones that knock it out. That way even if it is degraded you still have barganing power on the good points of your sample.

IE: If you have WHT that is down graded to a 3CW for frost but have no midge or smudge damage they will use your grain to blend with other farmers grain that is down graded for midge or smudge. Blended together they may come up with a 1 or 2 CW and profit on your attributes of no midge or smudge.

You are right a representative sample is the MOST important part of the sample. Then making sure that they handle that sample the way it is layed out in the Grain Grading Guide is the second step. Many elevators are not assesing dockage the way it is set out in the guide and may be costing you money. Not because they are trying to cheat you but more often to save time when THEY are busy. We often hear that producer cars get lower dockage than through elevators there is a reason for that.

There are lots of things that we as producers can use for barganing power and lots of things that we should be on top of when we offer our grain for sale. However most farmers don't know the factors or how exactally to asses them and are left to the buyers to tell us what we have. This is in all grains, pulses and oil seeds.

I refure to it like if you got a pay check. You would go to the bank and make sure that they counted it right. Not run from bank to bank and see who will give you the most for it, without knowing the value of the check. Then stop at the one that gives you the most even if it isn't the real amount on the check.

[btjadenlepp]

I'm not so sure about that paycheck
reference, these are fickle markets. And
I fail to see what's wrong with shopping
the crop around to see who gives the
best grade, which along with trucking
premiums can be worth a lot. In all the
transactions we've assisted with the
last 6 years, not once has a CGC or an
SGS cert ever helped get a better price.

www.farmlinksolutions.ca

[wmoebis]

Just asking.

What do you find generally, the reason for differances in grade? If it is a 2cw at on elevator why would it be a 3cw at one down the road? Is it the factor assesment or thier blending ability? If they can blend it to a 2cw why not a 1cw?

This is what I like to do.

I like to know what my sample is before I go shopping. I tell the elevator what I have, not the other way around. Both the good and bad. That way I can negotiate on my good kernals and attributes verses being degraded on my bad ones.

But, to each thier own. I want to be able to constructively pick my sample apart "with" the grain buyer. I want him to buy my good grain in the sample I will throw in the bad ones, for a price. If a buyer calls a kernal midge damage and I don't agree I want to be able to justify why I don't agree not just take his word on it.

Like I said to each thier own. My elevators are all 80 miles in every direction. I want to know before I hit the road with my samples and before the truck leaves my yard.

[btjadenlepp]

if it's a 2 one place and a 3 another,
it's reflective of demand. i cringe when
i hear policymakers talking about these
dynamics, because they're reflective of
a simple cash market (and we all know
what policy does to markets). the best
trucking premiums and upgrades come from
the elevator the most short. in board
grains-speak we call it 'incentives' but
it's the same thing as narrowing in a
canola basis. we have a saying around
farmlink, 'you want to be the one to
fill the last 8 cars.'

[wmoebis]

I agree incentives and trucking premiums are an important factor, as is the fact that the company wants your grain for it's good qualities.

I just find it ironic that farmers will take time and expense to research the best seeding tools and practices proper seeding depths best spacings, mid row banding etc. They will spend countless hrs reading chem ads and talking to agro's about what fert and chem to use. They will go to field days to observe results of said practices. They take time to go to combine clinics to learn the proper way to set thier machines to maximize performance and get the cleanest sample. Research new techs out there. They will get help from qualified marketers to find a market that suits them.

In the mean time, very few can tell you what they have growen for sale or if the buyer is assesing thequality and dockage properly. Ie: what pans in the dockage machine to wieght for dockage assesment. Believe me many aren't. It is great to get the trucking incentive but the grain company can get that back on improper assesment of dockage or protien just as fast.
If the buyer is assesing a kernal as servre midge is it infact servre midge or should it be midge damage. How many farmers can accurately tell the diff.

I am not saying by any means that grain buyers are crooks. Mistakes can be made also, protien machines can be accidentally left on wrong calibration, for time factor companies will take short cuts that often result in inaccurate assesment. If there is 30 or 40 trucks lined up at elevator, time is a big factor and things happen. It is to our best interest to know all factors about our grain and the handling of it so we can protect ourselves or know when to address these areas.

I also agree, markets are fickle. However, grain quality and handling of my sample is not. It is black and white and we should not be colour blind. I just feel that someone besides the buyer should know what my pay check is worth, in face value and I like that person to be me.