The firm bought its Bio Mill to reduce DON levels but is now looking at separating barley based on chit and protein levels
A Saskatchewan company that owns one of the province’s only near-infrared, single-kernel seed sorters is looking for new ways to add value to grain crops produced in Western Canada.
Peterson Grain Processors near Bruno, Sask., has been using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to sort grains for the past three years.
Jason Basset, the company’s general manager, says the company bought a Swedish-made BoMill seed sorter in 2016 with the intent of using it to reduce deoxynivalenol (DON) levels in harvested wheat.
DON is a mycotoxin caused by fusarium graminearum, a cereal disease that’s common in years of high moisture and humidity.
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Using NIR, the BoMill analyzes every seed in a sample, one kernel at a time. It shoots a beam of light through each individual kernel and separates the seeds based on selected parameters, such as kernel vitreousness, protein content and vomitoxin levels.
Since Basset bought his BoMill in 2016, fusarium pressure has decreased considerably in Saskatchewan, primarily due to drier weather conditions during the growing season.
So Basset has been looking for other ways to use the seed sorter.
“At first, we thought fusarium-damaged kernels and DON levels were going to be a common concern every year but I think it’s going to be weather dependent going forward,” he said.
“In fact, the amount of fusarium sorting that I’ve done lately has been fairly small compared to the other kinds of custom sorting that we’ve done.”
Among the more promising applications that Basset has been exploring is separating barley based on chit and protein levels.
The BoMill can be used to upgrade feed barley to malt by removing chitted kernels and sorting by protein.
The economic benefits of turning feed barley into malt will vary depending on the sample itself and the price spread between feed and malt.
But in some cases, there is extra value to be gained.
The company has even filled malt barley orders for craft brewers and maltsters who want malt barley shipments that fall into a narrow band of protein.
“Most craft brewers prefer lower protein,” Basset said.
“So we were able to sort barley from our own farm to a specific band of protein between 10.5 and 11 percent. They wanted 20 tonnes of the stuff, so we sorted it, bagged it in totes and shipped in a sea can.
“I think that’s another avenue that could be very profitable, not only for ourselves but also for craft brewers and maltsters who are looking for a very specific and consistent type of malt.”
Peterson Grain Processors has also had some success adding value to milling wheat based on falling number.
The BoMill is capable of sorting wheat into separate lots that contain higher or lower falling number values, said Basset.
However, bin-run wheat often has limited FN variability within the entire sample.
Sorting for an FN value of 300, for example, is impossible if the range of FN values within the bin is consistently between 200 and 250.
Basset is also conducting on-farm trials aimed at identifying other opportunities.
Early results from one seeding trial suggest that planting low protein wheat in the spring might produce a harvested grain crop with lower vomitoxin levels, higher falling number values, better grade and higher germination.
In the trial, Basset sowed test strips of wheat, side by side, based on average protein content.
One test strip contained wheat that had been sorted to include the highest protein kernels in the seedlot. Another test strip was sown with wheat that had been sorted to include the lowest protein kernels in the seedlot. And another test strip was sown using unsorted wheat seeds with a full range of protein concentrations.
The trials were replicated using two different varieties of CWRS wheat. In the seed used for planting, average protein levels in the high- and low-protein test strips differed by 0.6 to 0.7 percent.
For each variety, the test strips that were sown with low protein seeds produced the best results in terms of harvested grain quality.
“All of the test strips were very uniform in terms of yield, but when you started looking closely at the quality of the harvested grain, the low protein seed produced the best results,” said Basset.
“In all cases, it produced harvested seed with higher protein levels, lower vomitoxin levels, higher falling number, better grade and better germ,” he added.
“It’s almost counter to what I would have thought because intuitively, I would have guessed that high protein seed has more energy in it and would produce more grain and better quality, but that wasn’t the case.”
Basset cautioned that the findings of his on-farm research trials were preliminary and based on one-year of trail data. He will be conducting similar experiments this year to see if sorting wheat seed based on protein might be a strategy worth pursuing.
“We really feel like we’re just scratching the surface with what this machine can do,” he said.
“There are limitations though. You can only sort about 100 bushels an hour so it can be a full day’s work to process one load of grain.”
