Project Number: 5430-44000-015-22
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2007
End Date: Aug 31, 2010

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research is to 1) develop grain quality measurement methods to enable sorting for particular attributes and 2) develop improved storage monitoring methods through the innovative use of commercial sensors.

Approach:
Grain quality measurement methods using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) and other non-destructive methods will be developed to segregate single kernels based attributes such as oil and starch. Part of the focus will be to develop more rapid methods (5 -10 kernels/sec) than currently exist (1 kernel/sec). The design of practical storage sensing systems using relative humidity, will be investigated, in particular the long term stability of specific sensors, cost of implementing the sensor systems and the benefits of these systems.