Understanding your grain’s quality is important when it comes to marketing. Depending on end-user requests, your local buyer might have some wiggle room to pay above grade. The many diverse end uses for different crops domestically and abroad create a wide range of desired quality specifications. Keeping this in mind, it is key to not just know your grade, but the specific factors affecting your grains and oilseeds.
Knowing your quality can also potentially help you take advantage of grading differences across the border. One quality specification to pay close attention to going forward is vomitoxin. With the spread of fusarium across the prairies becoming more prevalent, vomitoxin levels are becoming more of a hurdle for sellers and buyers alike. Getting a lab test to determine the vomitoxin level of your grains may give you a leg up in negotiating prices with grain buyers. Talk with your local buyers and keep an eye out for potential opportunities to market your grain beyond the traditional CGC grading specifications.
In order to get the best and least biased interpretation of your crop’s quality, it is recommended that growers take their samples to third-party graders. Farm At Hand and FarmLink are working with SGS to help our growers take advantage of all possible marketing opportunities.
Not only will participants in this year’s harvest sampling program receive a discounted rate, but their samples will be placed at the top of the pile with a guaranteed turn around time of five days.
To ensure you take a representative sample, please follow these guidelines:
http://www.grainews.ca/2014/07/07/three-ways-to-sample/
If you are interested in partaking in this year’s Harvest Sample Program, please contact us at [email protected] or call (306) 861 8762