Grain Intelligence is about what a buyer will grade your load as, before you take it to market.
Grain is not sold at a price; it is sold at a price adjusted for moisture, foreign matter, damaged and shrivelled grain, and whatever else the buyer's schedule allows him to deduct for. A farmer who arrives without knowing his own numbers is negotiating from the buyer's measurement alone.
This walks through a quality inspection and returns the grade to expect and why — which parameter is costing the deduction, and whether it is one that can still be fixed by cleaning or drying before the trolley leaves.
That timing is the entire value. Moisture two points high is a discount at the gate and a morning in the sun at home. Once the load is at the mandi, the only remaining option is to accept the number.
It is honest that the buyer's own test decides the price. This tells you what to expect, not what you will be paid — but a farmer who expected it is a farmer who can argue, or walk.
How to use Grain Intelligence
What it is. A defensible quality assessment of a grain sample: you measure length, width, moisture, broken grain, foreign matter and uniformity, and it returns a composite score out of 100, a grade — Premium, Standard, Below Standard or Reject — an accept-or-reject recommendation, a storage read, a risk matrix and an exportable report.
When to open it. Before you commit: before you sell a lot, before you accept one, and before you put a crop into store for months.
Have ready.
A representative sample, drawn from several points in the lot rather than off the top.
A moisture reading from a calibrated meter. This is the one measurement worth borrowing an instrument for.
A count of broken grains and foreign matter as a percentage of the sample.
Grain length and width in millimetres, and a uniformity percentage.
Step by step.
Draw the sample properly. Everything below is arithmetic on this sample, and a sample taken off the top of the bag describes the top of the bag.
Measure moisture with a meter. If you cannot, say so — the report will refuse to give a storage duration rather than estimate one.
Weigh out broken grain and foreign matter and enter them as percentages.
Enter length and width in mm. The length-to-width ratio is computed from them and is what most grading systems describe shape by.
Enter uniformity as a percentage.
Read the score, then read the breakdown. The breakdown is what tells you which of the four is costing you the grade.
Compare with a previous sample if you have one, and export the report.
What it will not do. It grades the sample you measured, with a stated, equally weighted model. It is not an official grading certificate, it does not test for aflatoxin, pesticide residue or any laboratory safety parameter, and it cannot see the rest of the lot. Crop-specific storage reference bands exist for wheat; for other grains the report says so plainly instead of applying wheat's band.
Every setting in Grain Intelligence, explained
Grain / crop
Which grain this is. It selects the crop reference band the readings are compared against. How to choose: Name it accurately. Wheat, rice or paddy, maize or corn, barley, and pulses are each recognised. If it is wrong: The score is unaffected, but the reference comparison and the storage read are against the wrong crop's specification.
Moisture (%)
Water content of the grain, and a quarter of the composite score. Accepted range 0 to 50%. How to choose: From a calibrated meter, on the sample you are grading. The scoring band is 11 to 13%, with the score falling away linearly outside it and reaching zero six points from the edge. If it is wrong: Moisture is the single most consequential number in grain storage. It decides mould, insects and whether the lot is still there in three months — and above 15% the report flags elevated mould risk, above 16% a stronger one.
Broken grain (%)
The proportion of broken kernels, and another quarter of the score. How to choose: Count or weigh from the sample. The score drops four points for every one percent broken. If it is wrong: Broken grain is where deterioration starts, and buyers deduct for it. Understating it here only misleads you.
Foreign matter (%)
Everything in the sample that is not the grain — stones, chaff, other seeds, dust. A quarter of the score. How to choose: Weigh it out. It is penalised hardest of the four: eight points off the score for every one percent. If it is wrong: It is penalised hardest because it is the easiest thing to fix. Cleaning is cheap and moves the grade more than anything else on this list.
Uniformity (%)
How consistent the grain is, as a percentage. The last quarter of the score, entered directly. How to choose: Your own assessment of the sample's consistency. If it is wrong: Uniformity is what makes a lot predictable to process, which is why processors pay for it.
Length and Width (mm)
Grain dimensions. Length up to 30 mm, width up to 20 mm. How to choose: Measure several grains and use a representative figure. If it is wrong: These do not enter the score. They produce the length-to-width ratio, which is how most grading systems describe grain shape and how a buyer will describe your lot back to you.
Optional laboratory values
Damaged, shrivelled, immature, insect-damaged and diseased grain, other grains, admixture, dockage, protein, gluten, germination, purity and storage humidity. How to choose: Enter whatever you have. They do not change the composite score, which stays on the four measured parameters, but they appear in the report and inform the risk matrix. If it is wrong: Nothing. A blank stays blank and is never filled with a plausible number.
Now the useful part. Cleaning the foreign matter from 1.5% down to 0.5% raises that score to 96 and the composite to 93. An afternoon with a cleaner moves the grade. Drying from 14% to 12.5% would move the moisture score from 83 to 100 — worth 4.2 points on the composite, and worth far more than that in what survives three months in the godown.
How to read what it gives you
The grade bands are: 85 and above Premium, 70 to 85 Standard, 50 to 70 Below Standard, below 50 Reject. The accept recommendation is drawn at 70.
All four scored parameters carry equal weight, a quarter each. That is a deliberate, stated model, not a trade secret — which is what makes the result something you can argue with a buyer about.
Confidence is reported separately from the recommendation, and is never claimed above 98 or below 40 — a single manual sample cannot be certain, and the report will not pretend it is.
Storage suitability is only stated where there is a verified crop-specific reference band. Where there is not, it says 'not established' rather than borrowing another crop's number, and asks you to confirm against a trusted specification.
Anything not measured stays visibly absent. Without a moisture reading there is no storage duration, because there could not honestly be one.
What usually goes wrong
Sampling from the top of the bag. The whole assessment describes the sample, and the sample should describe the lot.
Estimating moisture by hand or by tooth. It is a quarter of the score and the whole of the storage decision; borrow a meter.
Reading the grade and skipping the breakdown. The breakdown is what tells you which parameter to act on, and foreign matter is usually both the worst-scoring and the cheapest to fix.
Grading once and storing for six months. Moisture migrates in a stack and the report says to reanalyse before a new commercial commitment for that reason.
Questions people ask about Grain Intelligence
What moisture content is safe for storing grain?
The scoring band used here is 11 to 13%, and above 15% the report flags elevated mould risk. Safe storage moisture genuinely varies by grain, by how long you intend to store it, by temperature and by whether it is bagged or bulk, so confirm against a specification for your crop rather than treating any single figure as universal. What is not in dispute is the direction: every point of extra moisture shortens how long the lot survives.
How is the grain quality score calculated?
Four parameters, a quarter each. Moisture scores 100 inside the 11–13% band and falls linearly outside it. Broken grain loses 4 points per percent. Foreign matter loses 8 points per percent. Uniformity is entered as a percentage and used directly. The average of the four is the composite score, and 85 and above is Premium, 70 and above Standard, 50 and above Below Standard, below that Reject.
What should I fix first to improve my grade?
Foreign matter, almost always. It is penalised twice as hard as broken grain — eight points per percent — and it is the cheapest thing to change, because cleaning is an afternoon's work. Drying is next, if moisture is outside the band. Broken grain and uniformity are decided at harvest and threshing and cannot be undone afterwards.
Is this an official grading certificate?
No. It is a transparent, defensible assessment you can show a buyer and argue about, because the model is stated. An official certificate comes from an accredited grading authority, and this does not replace one.
Why does it refuse to give a storage duration sometimes?
Because it will not guess one. Without a measured moisture reading, or without a verified crop-specific reference band for that grain, any duration would be invented — and somebody would store a crop on it. It tells you what is missing instead.
Does it test for aflatoxin?
No. Aflatoxin needs a laboratory test and nothing visual or dimensional can substitute for one. The Post-Harvest Advisory covers the storage conditions that raise and lower the risk, but the test itself is a laboratory's job.
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