Protein Testing

[bbrindle]

I just had a call from a farmer north east of Calgary complaining about protein testing at the elevators. He's taken the same sample to the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) and to elevators and is finding elevators are consistently lower on the protein levels. He even suspects that the levels are lower from the companies paying the higher trucking incentives.

A certain margin of error should be expected, but it should not be consistently lower at the elevator.

Is anyone else noticing this?

The CGC site has lots of information on protein testing and protein
arbitration. Go to www.cgc.ca then search for protein test, protein arbitration. The CGC provides protein arbitration for $15/sample. The fee is charged to the elevator. According to the CGC whether the elevator passes this cost on to you is negotiable.

[TOM4CWB]

On protein testing,we did many cross checks between major inland terminals, and find the grading astoundingly close,on multiple samples and types of wheat C/W protein, but do not send to the CGC. I beleive it only fair to ask for the grade that the terminal can achieve, allowing for the blending power of the grain we will haul considered as part of the package of grain being sold to that elevator. Many times farmers hauling longer distances will get better grades especially if the area being hauled into has a large volume of wheat near the top of a particular grade allowing blending up of other wheat that would be borderline if all the grain being taken in was of that quality. Primary elevators are allowed to blend but export terminal elevators are not,as the CWB wants that blending power instead of the farmers from the area the grain is shipped from. This means more trucking cost to achieve the maximum return for the individual farmer growing the specific lot of grain. We find most elevators want to make their money on volume, not by stealing grain by misgrading it. The reward for theft is low when their is so much competition in the grain industry today. We do not return to an elevator if someone steals from us!

Some complaints from grain co.'s are that Port unloads can be lower than CGC official tests that farmer send in for testing. Since a sample submitted by a farmer is not an officially drawn sample, by the CGC, then the grade and protein given for the $15.00 means nothing. This is another reason why the large inland terminals loading multi car trains sometimes have CGC inspectors travel to their terminal, and officially sample and grade the cars, so at terminal unload position the car has a grade that cannot change, and the elevator knows what it will get when the cars unload.