A small piece of technology is potentially costing grain growers thousands.
Nick Cobcroft of ‘Highbank’ Young is leading the charge of growers asking for a standardized moisture level test at grain receival stations throughout Australia.
“In Australia we don’t have a standardised test,” Mr Cobcroft said.
Various moisture tests read grain at different levels.”
Mr Cobcroft said the issue of too high moisture is most evident in the southern and eastern parts of the State, where he also has a property, and for summer crops such as sorghum.
“But it can be an issue out west if there is a lot of summer moisture about,” he said.
Mr Cobcroft said he initially became involved in rallying for a standardised test in the late 1990’s, where he approached a lab facility with a small sample of sorghum.
Two oven tests were applied to the sample.
“There was a fairly large difference between the two ovens tests,” he said.
“I started asking ‘why would that happen in a small sample?’
“The answer was the difference in the ‘coffee grinder’ used to grind the sorghum to test it.”
Mr Cobcroft said one version of the ‘coffee grinder’ ground the sample finer, leading to the difference in results.
But there is no standard for which grinders should be used.
“You can go through to one silo and get knocked back for being too high (in moisture) and go down the road 15km and get through,” he said.
Mr Cobcroft said this can leave grain growers with a difficult choice at recieval stations, deciding whether to return the grain to the farm, or accept a lower price.
“It can cost $24-25 a tonne to shift grain, or they’ll knock $20 off the contract price,” he said.
“Most grain growers you talk to have similar stories.”
Werris Creek farmer John Colville of ‘Kyooma’ is another farmer arguing for a standardized test.
“There can be thousands of dollars involved,” he said.
“0.1 of a difference in moisture means a hell of a difference in a 30 tonne truckload.”
Mr Colville and Mr Cobcroft said they had tried handheld or machine moisture tests, but with no standard it was difficult to calibrate the technology at home.
“The wool industry has very accurate wool testing machines,” Mr Colville said.
“If wool industry can do it, the wheat industry should be able to.”
The NSW Farmers’ Association has also gotten behind the fight, with grains committee chair Mark Hoskinson saying they will be pushing the issue through their representation on the Grain Trade Australia standards committee.
“It shouldn’t be too difficult in the case of sorghum to standardise,” Mr Hoskinson said.
It is the simplicity of the matter that has kept Mr Cobcroft fighting.
“It’s quite a frustrating issue,” Mr Cobcroft said.
“It is one of the simplest things to be done and I can’t understand why it hasn’t been done.”
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