Representative grain sampling is essential, but not always straight forward. How can you ensure the place you are selling to is getting a complete and accurate sample of your entire truck or bin?
Ken Jackson saw a need for change in this department and decided it was time for a fully automated sampling system, so he developed VeriGrain, which was launched at the 2020 Western Canadian Crop Production Show at Saskatoon, Sask.
“The two things it does right off the bat is it gives you an accurate sample and a representative sample. So you know with a high degree of certainty what went into the bin, or what came out of the bin. So it’s used for both loading into storage and loading out of storage,” explains Jackson, CEO of VeriGrain. “The fundamental problem that we want to solve is that growers invest so much money to grow their crop, and then at harvest time you put it in the bin and storage, and you don’t really know what you’ve got. A scoop on a stick and taking random samples simply is not going to give you the level of accuracy and detail that you need.”
Jackson says that the VeriGrain system works off of an app on your phone, in conjunction with a device that either goes off the end of an auger or conveyor, or at the pivot point of a swing auger.
“It gets very accurate samples using a crosscut sampler, and then that sample is pulled into that control unit where it ends up in a container,” he explains. “By using the phone app, you can tell the system how many bushels per acre, how many tonnes you are going to put through, and how much you want to represent that next five-gallon pail (or there is a three-gallon container as well). So with just a few touches of your finger, you can set the system so it will automatically determine the sampling rate and when the next five thousand bushels go through, you have a container full of grain.”
He adds that in addition to getting this accurate representation, VeriGrain also allows all that information you gather to be digitized and put into one place.
The basic system retails for $2,600, and can be ordered through VeriGrain.com.
Listen to RealAgriculture’s Kara Oosterhuis in conversation with Ken Jackson, below:
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