World Grain -- December 2013 - 88

grainoperations

tire U.S. and include multiple varieties
and regional composites. The WPACKING program will be refined with
new data simulating varying bin sizes,
shapes, material and bin wall types. Additionally, the program will be updated
to grain quality factors such as moisture,
test weight, dockage, damage, foreign
material, and broken kernels.
Unlike empirical methods of determining packing factor, mostly used by
governmental agencies, the WPACKING model uses detailed laboratory
compressibility measurements for all
included grain types. Thus, WPACKING model calibration and validation
requires a manageable amount of field
data from storage bins representing the
range of sizes and types in use.
Measurement of a few hundred bins
is currently being conducted to validate and calibrate the WPACKING
model. Using a science-based approach in the WPACKING program
will help avoid excessive cost of obtaining massive amounts of commercial bin data and at the same time will
provide more accurate and reliable
predictions of the mass of grain in the
bin. It is hoped that this model will
generate confidence intervals for the
prediction of grain compaction and in-

88 WG 2013.indd

ventorying of grain that has not previously been available.
ConClusions
Quality management is becoming
extremely important to the grain industry, both in domestic and international
markets. It requires careful and accurate documentation of the amount of
grain stored in bins, and this can only
be achieved if there are reliable and accurate compaction factors. Climatic uncertainties also beg for more accurate
inventory control. Abnormal climatic
situations like drought will alter the test
weight and other quality parameters of
grain kernels. This variable in grain
quality will yield different packing scenarios than those normally observed.
Hence, reliable and accurate compaction factors are necessary to estimate
the exact amount of grain in the bin.
Inventory control (which is the ability to measure accurately the amount
of grain in a bin at any given time) is
extremely crucial for insurance agencies, auditors, elevator managers and
farmers. It is needed for various financial and operational purposes. Thus,
again we see reliable compaction factors are needed to predict the exact
amount of grain in storage bins based

For more information, see Page 102.
1

on volume measurements.
The compaction factor project undertaken by USDA-ARS and its collaborators will be able to provide reliable, updated information to the modern grain
industry and user-friendly software for
predicting compaction factors and, hence,
the amount of grain in any storage unit. It
is the hope of researchers that this software will find greater acceptance among
the grain industry, governmental agencies
and elevator managers, and also that it
will be considered "the tool" for performing grain inventories. Getting a single uniform compaction factor database, i.e., the
WPACKING program, is the long-term
vision of this research group.
rumela Bhadra, ph.D, is a research associate
at Kansas state University (KsU), working in
collaboration with Dr. Mark e. Casada (U.s.
Department of agriculture-agriculture research
service, Manhattan, Kansas, U.s.) on grain
compaction factor project funded by UsDarMa, since 2011. other collaborators include Dr.
Josephine M. Boac and Dr. ronaldo G. Maghirang
(KsU), sidney a. thompson (University of Georgia),
samuel G. Mc.neil and Michael D. Montross
(University of Kentucky). Bhadra can be reached at
rumelabhadra31@gmail.com.
We want to hear from you - Send comments and
inquiries to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of
WG articles, e-mail reprints@sosland.com.

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World Grain -- December 2013

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