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Moisture testing – Chapter 2
Official Grain Grading Guide
Estimating moisture content for lightweight wheat, oats and barley samples
Use these procedures for lightweight wheat, oats and barley samples.
- Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat is light weight if the test weight is less than 66 kg/hL or 320 g/0.5 L.
- Oats are lightweight if the test weight is less than 48 kg/hL or 220 g/0.5 L.
- Barley is lightweight if the test weight is less than 52 kg/hL or 250 g/0.5 L.
- Samples of wheat, oats and barley are also considered lightweight if grain touches the surface of the inverted cone portion of the cell post in the measuring cell.
Normal procedures for determining moisture content will give inaccurate results with light weight samples.
CWRS wheat, oats and barley
Conversion tables are available for lightweight Canadian Western Red Spring, oats and barley. See Choosing a conversion table.
Other wheats
These are the procedures for estimating the moisture content of lightweight samples of Canada Western Soft White Spring (CWSWS), Canada Western Hard White Spring (CWHWS), Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW), and Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD), Canada Western Extra Strong (CWES), and Canada Prairie Spring Red or Canada Prairie Spring White (CPSR and CPSW) wheat.
- Use a 225-g sample with the appropriate temperature.
- Determine the moisture using Moisture Conversion Table No. 9 (Canada Western Red Spring wheat, test weight less than 66 kg/hL).
- Subtract or add depending upon the correction factor for the appropriate class by moisture range according to the following table.
| Moisture range (%) | CWSWS1 | CWRW2 | CWAD3 | CWES4 | CPSR/CPSW5 | CWHWS6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CWSWS - Canada Western Soft White Spring | ||||||
| CWRW - Canada Western Red Winter | ||||||
| CWAD - Canada Western Amber Durum | ||||||
| CWES - Canada Western Extra Strong | ||||||
| CPSR/CPSW - Canada Prairie Spring Red/White | ||||||
| CWHWS - Canada Western Hard White Spring | ||||||
| 10.0 - 12.0 | 0.0 | –0.1 | –0.4 | –0.2 | +0.2 | -0.1 |
| 12.1 - 14.0 | -0.1 | –0.3 | –0.6 | –0.3 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
| 14.1 - 16.0 | -0.3 | –0.5 | –0.8 | –0.4 | –0.3 | -0.1 |
| 16.1 - 18.0 | –0.4 | –0.6 | –0.9 | –0.5 | –0.5 | -0.2 |
| 18.1 - 20.0 | –0.6 | –0.8 | –1.1 | –0.6 | –0.7 | -0.2 |
Examples
Step: Use a 225-g sample with the appropriate temperature.
Example: A 225-g sample of light weight CWSWS wheat gives a meter reading of 40.0 at 15°C.
Step: Determine the moisture using Moisture Conversion Table No. 9 (Canada Western Red Spring wheat, weight less than 66 kg/hL).
Example: Conversion Chart No. 9 (Canada Western Red Spring wheat, test weight less than 66 kglhL) gives a percentage moisture of 16.2.
Step: Add or subtract the correction factor from the chart for the appropriate class according to the moisture range.
Example: The correction factor from the Correction factors table is -0.1. The corrected moisture for the light weight sample is (16.2 - 0.1) or 16.1%.
