Grain quality can mean different things to different people depending upon the type of grain and its intended use. Several important factors affect grain quality, including genetic traits, seed composition, growth period, harvesting time, harvesting and handling equipment, drying system, storage management practices, and transportation procedures. Analysis of grain qualities includes three main categories covering a variety of characteristics:

• Physical—moisture content, test weight, kernel size, total damaged kernels, heat damage, broken kernels, stress cracking, breakage susceptibility¹
• Sanitary—fungi and mycotoxin count, insects and insect fragments, rodent excrements, foreign material, toxic seeds, pesticide residue, odor, dust¹
• Intrinsic—milling yield, oil content, protein content, hardness, density, starch content, feed value, viability, storability¹

¹ Grain Quality Task Force. Fact Sheet #23. 1995. Purdue University, Cooperative Extension Service, West Lafayette, IN. (http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/GQ/GQ-23.html)

Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been a trusted analytical method in the agronomy sciences for years. It is a highly cost effective testing process, offering an alternative to ongoing expensive, and time consuming, laboratory-based wet chemistry. ASD’s portable and online NIR technology systems can be implemented at numerous touch points throughout the agricultural process where and when analysis is most beneficial to your processes:

• Plant breeders can identify plant varieties with desired characteristics
• Assure product quality and consistency and/or conformity to product requirements
• Measurement of nutritional components such as oil, protein, and moisture in feed, grain and seed products
• Measurement of soybean meal for feed and food products
• Analysis of distiller’s dried grains including solulables (DDGS) and sulfur content

ASD’s dependable, research-grade spectrometers are ideal for use in crop breeding programs for enhancing the qualities and nutritional value of grains and other crops. Additionally, ASD’s spectroscopy systems are environmentally friendly and extremely well suited for use at grain collection locations, non-destructive monitoring of quality during processing, and final product verification in the manufacturing environment. The wider spectral wavelength range of ASD's Vis/NIR technology more thoroughly analyzes samples for various constituents and their concentrations including oil, protein, fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic, and amino acids such as lysine and methionine, in whole grain and seed. Because of the variance that occurs in an uncontrolled environment, larger data sets obtained through the added Visible and Third Overtone Regions are key in making the calibration model more robust.

The addition of ASD’s Vis/NIR technology greatly increases your ability to tighten process controls through more frequent testing, and as such improves quality and increases yield levels. At the same time, it can significantly reduce the risk of yield that doesn’t meet quality standards.