There are few things more depressing for an arable farmer than having a load of grain rejected. While losing a premium for low Hagbergs in milling wheat or high nitrogen in malting barley is frustrating, having an entire 29t load returned to farm because it contains ergot is soul-destroying.

Not only does it mean additional haulage charges, but there’s the cost of sorting the problem out to make good of the grain. And it’s a problem that looks to be growing.

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Whether it’s down to changing weather patterns or increasing grassweed pressures, ergot seems to be in the ascendancy.

Last year was reported to have been one of the worst seasons on record for the fungal disease, with growers experiencing more penalties and rejections than ever.

Although ergot appears to have little impact on yield, the alkaloid poisons it contains pose a risk to human and animal health and, consequently, grain merchants tend to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to infected samples.

Screening plants and optical sorters can help to alleviate the issue, but knowing exactly what’s going into store in the first place means infected loads can be kept separate and dealt with individually.

© UK Aerial Photography

And that’s what spawned the idea of a mobile sampling lab for Hertfordshire-based arable operation AT Bone.

“With grain coming into centralised stores from all our different contract farming customers, there’s the risk of an infected load getting mixed in with good, clean grain,” explains Ellen Bone.

“The costs of having a rejected load due to ergot are tripled up – not only do we have the return haulage to pay, we lose any premium, and then we have to clean the sample.

“We’ve invested in an optical sorter but it’s slow, and you certainly don’t want to run an entire 3,000t store’s worth through it.

“So to identify any issues before they become a bigger problem, we decided we need to sample every load coming in at harvest.”

But, with multiple storage sites across the 4,000ha the business manages, it wouldn’t have been cost-effective to have a sampling setup at each location.

Mobile rig

With fully kitted-out workshops and fabrication facilities to serve the firm’s construction activities and service its fleet of HGVs, the quieter winter months provided the opportunity to build a bespoke mobile rig equipped with all the necessary gear to analyse each trailer- or lorryload of grain coming off the field.

Underpinning the whole setup is a 40ft step-frame, ex-events trailer. Originally an RAF exhibition unit, it came with its own 15kVa silent-run generator and twin air-con units mounted forward of the fifth-wheel coupling – making for a ready-made, self-contained and dust-proof hub.

As the intention was to position this alongside a weighbridge when put to work, a spear sampler was the number one item on the shopping list.

At £22,000, the Tornum Stork wasn’t cheap, but was central in ensuring the operation became as automated and operator-friendly as possible. After all, if every load was to be speared, that could equate to just shy of 1,000 samples being taken.

This required a chunk of the slab-sided body to be cut away to make room for a platform over the swan-neck to accommodate the sampling arm. Although there is an access door out onto this sun deck, the operator has no need to leave the air-conditioned comfort of the lab, as everything is remotely controlled from within.

Testing lab

Workbenches down each side of the galley host all manner of sampling kit, from moisture meters and grain size sieves to protein analysers and even a dough-spewing Hagberg measurement machine, to ensure wheat meets milling requirements.

© UK Aerial Photography

But more essential than any of this is the humble whiteboard. As soon as the sample rattles into the lab’s receiving hopper, it is spread out on the board and visually assessed for any signs of contaminants – specifically ergot.

“Anything over two infected grains will immediately designate that load as contaminated,” explains Ellen.

“It’s then taken to a separate bin or bay ready to be run through the colour sorter at a later date. Having that facility is fantastic, but it’s only capable of handling 20-25t/hour, so we need to keep the diverted tonnage to a minimum.

“Previously we would be collecting a few random samples throughout the day, but it only takes one load to contaminate a whole heap of grain, which we simply can’t afford with margins as tight as they are.”

Germination testing

With 70-80% of the business’s wheat going for milling, there’s a heavy emphasis on every tonne meeting the specification to ensure premiums are achieved.

In the same vein, this year the Bones splashed out on a dedicated germination tester to ensure malting barley meets spec and any home-saved seed will emerge reliably.

“We have our own fleet of lorries and like to deliver as much of our own grain as possible, particularly to our milling and malting customers,” says Ellen. “They value the emphasis we place on grain quality and know they’ll get good, clean loads without any hassle.

“With premiums of up to £50/t, it’s essential to know what you are sending to the mill will not be rejected or subjected to heavy claims.

“And, critically for our contract farming customers, there’s complete transparency – we can show them that each load has been sampled and the exact analysis of what’s come off their ground. We now know the protein content and therefore the precise financial value of every tonne.”

Since the mobile testing outfit was completed in early spring this year, AT Bone and its customers have had no rejected loads and zero penalties imposed for grain not meeting quality criteria, which alone justifies the expense of the unit.

In addition, once everything is loaded into store, there’s the potential for additional revenue by hiring the mobile lab to other grain handling setups – much like the firm’s dressers and optical sorter.

“If the sampling unit saves days and days of colour sorting by enabling us to put any suspect loads to one side, then it’s quickly paying for itself,” says Ellen.

“And if it then goes out and does the job for other people, it’s bringing in an extra revenue stream for the business. The investment easily stacks up.”