Moisture and shrink

Enter the readings

Enter them in the New Delivery window, or on the load’s card after clicking Edit.

• Moisture – one reading, or several separated by commas or spaces (18.2,17.8). The app averages them to two decimals, and the average shows on the card. Moisture always shows to two decimals, on screen and on slips and invoices.
• Test Wt (Test Weight on the edit card) – works the same way. The average shows under the box.
• Damage – one number: the damage and foreign material percentage.

With a grain tester connected, Capture on the edit card fills in moisture and test weight. See Grain testers.

How wet bushels become dry bushels

Every time you save an open load, the app works it out again:

1. Net weight is gross minus tare.
2. Wet bushels are net weight divided by 56 lb for corn, white corn and milo, or 60 lb for soybeans, wheat and other grains.
3. Moisture shrink comes from the Shrink Loss table, and only when moisture is above Target Dry %. With one row, the shrink is (moisture − Min %) × Shrink %, taken off the net weight. With several rows, the app steps down from the load’s moisture by each row’s Points, highest row first, taking that row’s Shrink % for every step until it drops below the row’s Min %.
4. Test weight shrink: if the test weight falls between a Test Weight Shrink row’s Range Start and Range End, that row’s Percentage of the net weight comes off.
5. Damage shrink works the same way, from the Damage FM Shrink table. For both, a reading between two rows or past the last row takes the worse row.
6. Dry bushels are what’s left of the net weight, divided by the bushel weight.

Dry bushels go on the customer’s balance, fill contracts, and are what a spot sale pays for. On the printed slip, Gross Units are wet bushels and Net Units are dry bushels.

Worked example

Corn on the starting settings: Target Dry % 14; one Shrink Loss row of Min % 14, Shrink % 1.4, Points 1; and a Test Weight Shrink row of 52 to 52.9 at 0.8.

• Gross 60,000 lb, tare 20,000 lb: net 40,000 lb, or 714.286 wet bushels.
• Moisture readings 18.2 and 17.8 average to 18.00. That’s 4 points over 14, so 4 × 1.4% = 5.6%, or 2,240 lb.
• Test weight 52.5 falls in the 52–52.9 row: 0.8%, or 320 lb.
• Damage 0: no damage shrink.
• 40,000 − 2,240 − 320 = 37,440 lb ÷ 56 = 668.571 dry bushels.

The settings

1. Go to Site Config and pick the grain in Commodity. Each grain has its own settings.
2. Set Target Dry % under Pricing & Drying. Loads at or below it take no moisture shrink.
3. Edit the Shrink Loss, Test Weight Shrink and Damage FM Shrink tables. Use + Add Row to add a row and × to remove one.
4. Click Save Configuration.

New settings apply to loads saved after you change them. An open load picks them up the next time you edit and save it. Closed loads keep the numbers they closed with.

Common problems

• Dry Bushels shows 0. The load has no tare weight yet, so there’s no net weight.
• Dry bushels equal wet bushels. Moisture is at or below Target Dry %, and test weight and damage didn’t land in any row.
• A reading between two rows takes the worse row. Test weight 52.95 falls between 52–52.9 and 53–53.9, so it takes 52–52.9. Damage 4.05 takes the row that starts at 4.1. Test weight below the lowest row, or damage above the highest, takes that last row.
• Changed the tables but an open load didn’t change. Click Edit on the load and Save.
• Cleared the test weight but it’s still there. An empty box keeps the old value. Enter 0 to remove it.