Trading grain based on quality data
Agricultural practices are transforming across Sweden, a country where cereal grains prevail over other crops, taking up approximately 40% of the total arable land in the country. In the Southern Plains District, farmers typically enjoy larger yields than farmers in more northern regions. Nestled towards the bottom of the Swdish peninsula, not too far from the Baltic Sea, lies a historic farming estate with roots from the 1300’s. This historic farm is implementing cutting edge technology into their daily practices, including the GrainSense portable NIR grain analyzer.
The Ruuthsbo Estate, more precisely located in the county of Skåne in Sweden, cultivates wheat, malting barley, oats, rape seed, forage grass and sugar beets. Their produce is sold as quality products in the form of wheat vodka, whiskey malt and gluten-free muesli oats. The total area is around 900 ha, of which 800 ha is arable land. Together with the farms seven employees the operations of the Ruuthsbo Estate are quality focused, at a time when many grain farmers are still concentrated on quantity. GrainSense allows access to their cereal harvest’s data instantly, which helps further drive the focus on quality.
Track grain quality instantly, anywhere.
“I like technology and quality. This is why I snapped to attention when I read about GrainSense and thought we had something going there. And so I popped directly at their exhibition stand at the Borgeby Field Days'', said Gustav Hagemann, owner of Ruuthsbo Estate. Nowadays, a sample is taken and measured with the GrainSense Analyzer every time a load is brought in, which makes it possible to determine an average for the entire batch.
Making sure every crop is fit for its purpose, at the right price.
“Whoever has the best product sells, and so far it has been the grain traders who have had all the cards, while we have ended up being left with the Old Maid. We can now take a sample from each load that arrives at the facility and then pick up the phone and tell the cereal traders what we can offer them. We have transferred the power from buyers to growers,” stated Hagemann.
Reliable, fast data on the spot.
Just like other users across the globe, Hagemann has tested what GrainSense is capable of by comparing it with stationary analyzers. “We were extremely surprised how well things checked out”, he said and asserted that GrainSense is a professional machine at a relatively affordable price. He hopes that the device will be able to measure more variables in the future, thereby giving growers an even greater insight into what they can offer to traders. Though this is best described in his own words, “GrainSense gives farmers the opportunity to know themselves what they are dealing with. To be able to vouch for your product, you need a reliable measuring instrument, and this is what GrainSense stands for.”
Farms as historic as the Ruuthsbo Estate or even newer operations have been learning the benefits of knowing their protein, moisture, carbohydrate and oil contents. As farmers not only in Sweden, but across the world begin to shift their focus more on quality and less on pure quantities, tools like the GrainSense Analyzer will become even more important in the hands of farmers, as the Ruuthsbo Estate has shown, quality data has already impacted their daily operations.