Feed&Grain.com |

Depending on whom you ask, most people will say that grain quality reaches its peak at harvest.

Indeed, once it leaves the farm, the primary driver of grain quality evolves from its initial function of producing a quality crop to one of grain quality preservation.

While the role played by elevator operators and those who handle grain as it enters the marketing channel is vital to overall grain quality, the upfront work done by grain producers themselves has added a much-needed boost to reshaping our grain quality reputation.

“Certainly biotechnology coupled with innovative plant breeding strategies, cutting-edge precision crop protection and harvesting equipment, and advances in storage technologies have allowed producers to bring a higher quality crop to market,” says Tom Shanower, director, USDA Grain Marketing and Production Research Center (GMPRC), Manhattan, KS. “Truly, the producer has many tools at their disposal that directly affect grain quality.”

Loading the Toolbox

Of all the tools grain producers and handlers have at their disposal to promote grain quality, probably the one having the most potential influence is the Internet.

With the click and drag of a computer mouse, producers, farm managers and agronomists have millions of bytes worth of information at their disposal from a seemingly endless supply of sources.

For example, the Iowa State University Agronomy Extension department features 14 program links on their website’s navigation bar. Clicking on the “soil fertility” link reveals an additional 12 links containing information on all things fertility-related from lime and soil pH to soil test interpretations and recommendations. All this from just one link from just one resource!