When Oregon producers in Gilliam County decided to preserve the identity of their grain, they headed full-steam into a comprehensive new program.

Under the Gilliam County Wheat Quality Initiative grain identity preservation program, local wheat will hopefully find more lucrative markets, says Jordan Maley.

Maley, the Oregon State University Cooperative Extension agent in the county, has helped lead the grassroots effort to set up the system, and launch a new Grain Quality Lab this summer in Arlington, Ore., as part of the plan.

"Identity preserved grain requires physical traceability from the point of production to the delivery destination, and that's what we offer," says Maley. "Quality assurance guarantees that the buyer receives the top quality grain the producer agrees to provide."

To achieve this goal, a representative sample of grain is collected and retained. Then, testing for quality parameters important to the buyer are conducted at the lab, with a close eye on protein levels, moisture, test weight, loaf volume and many other factors.

"Physical traceability is a big part of all this," Maley says. "It depends on the seller's ability to segregate, maintain and certify the integrity of grain lots as they move from production source to end-use processor." Documentation toward this end includes records of product movement, routing, points of transfer and processing that may change the grain quality characteristics (clean, blending, tempering, etc.)

Near-infrared (NIR) instruments recognized by the grain industry are used to measure protein and other end-use functional quality characteristics. "With proper calibration, these instruments are accurate in protein measurement to better than one-half percent," Maley claims.

For more on the Gilliam lab, see the Sept. issue of Western Farmer-Stockman.