Some of you have asked if the corn is tested at the elevator…for it looks like unscrupulous souls could just truck in wet corn and drive away laughing, if the workers at the elevator didn’t check.
You are so right!
The new combines all have computers in them—monitoring everything from the time the seed is put into the planter to when the corn is harvested. The operator knows what the moisture is when he puts it in the truck. BUT it doesn’t matter what the farmer says the moisture is…it matters what the workers at the elevator say the moisture is. They are the last word…it is their product once it goes out of the truck into the silos. Depending on the size of the truck probes are inserted into the load and samples of the each and every load is taken before the corn is approved for purchase.
YES! there are always those that try to slip in a wet load….but they always get caught and the word is out on them. Who wants that type of reputation?
Our combines are not computerized (at all); we use a moisture meter at the house. Sometimes Terry drives samples on down to the elevator, but mostly it’s done here.
The best time of the day to take the test is in the afternoon, before the sun starts to set and the air starts to chill down. We –Terry, Boomer, and I drive to all the different fields and get two or three cobs to test from each one in different locations of the field.
The cob is shelled and then dumped into the tester, if we get a consistent count (14%) we are good to go. (Dry corn will take on the moisture of wet corn raising the moisture content within the truck bed–so we aim for the 14%).
Still too high…now what?
We went shopping! (and lunch out)
Surprisingly just what he has been looking for was right there waiting for us to write a check.
Not bad for a Saturday trip to Grand Junction, Colorado!
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda 🙂
Life on a Colorado Farm 
checking it twice… still naughty, not nice. 🙂
go folger’s can, go!
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A shopping trip to town and lunch out on the town….sounds like the perfect way to spend the day! Hope you brought a treat home to the Boomer!
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:::Dry-Corn-Dry:::
Looks like you guys had snow flurries this morning…. Hope the dry air, dries the corn even more!
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Yay, on the shopping trip and actually finding what he wanted!! Doesn’t always happen that way. Boo, on the moisture of the corn!! Now that you are getting snow today, it will take even longer, won’t it? Hope it dries soon.
Too windy here today to even do the repair work on the cotton stripper! Gusts pushing 50mph at times, temps dropped 20* this afternoon! Tomorrow is another day…it will be colder, but not as windy.
Blessings!
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At least you managed to get some shopping done. Hopefully things are drier now.
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Yay! Shopping and lunch was a great idea! Sounds like my kind of afternoon.
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Glad he found just what he needed. Interesting how to measure the moisture.
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Farming and ranching all revolve around good ole Mother Nature!
At least you all gotta go shopping and pick up some goodies! 🙂
Cheri
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Blooming heck…I love corn..but I thought it was just sown, grown picked and sold…not all this about wet ;n dry….sticking things in here ,there and everywhere, testing ,testing testing.
When I finally get it I boil it , get lumps of butter and then teeth to the cob…all gone! yummy
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Thanks for sharing how it’s tested. I was wondering. Always an interesting blog :-).
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Yay shopping – boo high moisture corn! 🙂
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