Grading, protein, falling numbers

[Choice2U]

Understanding the system and knowing what you got is a little bit of BS. I couldn't take better samples of each bin. I take the samples to the elevator and get them graded. Then every load is graded separately when delivered and rarely meets my sample pail. Protein is usually lower or the same but never higher.

Problem is that we get paid a premium for protein but then everything else is a discount that varies per load.

Unless one takes a video of one sampling a load as it goes into the truck and then tests the sample, you get what they say it is.

Please educate me on falling # as I have never been paid a premium or discount for that number. I suspect that if one had a producer car loading site and was able to send a sample of a 90/100 mt bin prior to the car being loaded and then sent to a specific buyer, the falling # would be relevant.

[farmaholic]

On a year with alot of weather damaged/sprouted grain, you bet that falling number matters. There is definitely a discount for sprouted grain(lower grades) but hopefully the "good" grain in the higher grades sees the premium in those years. Built in? Ask the end user if it matters....

[Braveheart]

Farmaholic, from earlier, yes, farmers should stand up for themselves, absolutely. But always approaching every transaction with an elevator company?

I have said before, amid howls of wtf, that I consider the grain handlers partners as we are all dependent on one another through the chain. If a "partner" doesn't hold up their end, I look for a different partner.

As with most things I find grain is personality driven. Different management/labour at the same elevator point can change everything. I change as well. As such I stay flexible.

[Braveheart]

Paul Beingessner? Really? He was in it for the money. Very articulate, but for the money. He was paid for his opinion. That opinion, wrong 99% of the time, was always well put.

[Braveheart]

Should have read always approaching every transaction with distrust.

[farmaholic]

Being adversarial all the time or coming out of your corner swinging only gets other people's defenses up. But I think it is important that everyone know we're not door mats or we have to live up to the old moniker, dumb farmer.

[ianben]

Here in UK we have similar issues which I now believe is down to the sampling alone and not dishonesty on either side.
I was on a steering group with Coors the Maltster and they could not understand why farmers could not deliver to the spec they required, and thought
were untrustworthy.
There was only one sample, in their, view the one they took from the lorry with a robot suction probe, This sample could be retested but not a new sample taken. Their whole brand and business structure depended on the belief that their testing was accurate and could not be questioned.
The fact that a load rejected one day could be loaded on a different lorry and pass the next we decided not to pursue as this made us look more dishonest.
It is just a lottery. The sample is too small for the quantity and the variation between individual grains can be huge. I believe every grain in every ear can be different spec. Give them a number like the lottery balls and then add the six winning balls to give the result, some weeks they draw all high numbers, some weeks all low. Some weeks farmers are dishonest some weeks grain companies but it is just the luck of the draw.

[checking]

Mr. Farmer.

Listen to Choice2U and Ianben. They know the truth.

Otherwise, when you go to Tom's hell, your job will be sampling continuous unloads of your truck until you find one that matches the devil buyer's.

[Braveheart]

I think you'll need Scully and Mulder to find the truth.

[Hopperbin]

One thing to think about. Carefull what we ask for. Having one body do grading means we get what they say. I tend to like to sell lower grade not intentionally growing lower but sell it as higher grade than it actually is. Foreward pricing wheat works for klause at the moment. As far as weigh scale protien moisture I cannot get any discrepancy. If you feel ****ed on unload ask for sample before they toss it. They will give it to you. Take it somewhere else for verification. I have no idea how bucket can say protien varies from test to test it does not.

[Hopperbin]

One thing to think about. Carefull what we ask for. Having one body do grading means we get what they say. I tend to like to sell lower grade not intentionally growing lower but sell it as higher grade than it actually is. Foreward pricing wheat works for klause at the moment. As far as weigh scale protien moisture I cannot get any discrepancy. If you feel ****ed on unload ask for sample before they toss it. They will give it to you. Take it somewhere else for verification. I have no idea how bucket can say protien varies from test to test it does not.

[bucket]

Watched them test the same bag at three places 12.8 to 13.4. Same 1 lb bag.

GDT, pioneer and Cargill in davidson. All within an hour.

Not unusual I have seen it before.

[JDGreen]

It is not an issue of trust in my opinion.. I will go right back to the start of knowing what you have. And I say bullshit on anyone that thinks for one minute that you can't have the same equipment and have more expertise in your own farm business than what my current delivery points have in some city kids grading grain based on a few days of courses. I don't want anymore than what I have coming to me but am tired of accepting less. I would like to move to a system of SGS samples and graded bin lots in the near future.. Certified to spec sealed lots. No different than what the grain companies currently do with their own customers.

[bucket]

All I am saying is the delivery points are going to pay you what it unloads in their facility and what their testers say.

There may be negotiation after but that's the politics of grain.

[Braveheart]

Buckets right. Your machine, if you have one doesn't matter. The buyers' tests would matter.