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Grain Moisture Shrink Calculator - Water Shrink vs. Buyer Schedule

See the hidden margin in your elevator's shrink factor and the real dollar impact

Estimate physical water shrink from wet grain to target moisture and compare it with a user-entered buyer shrink and handling schedule. Outputs are source-boundary planning estimates, not an elevator settlement statement, contract interpretation, legal opinion, crop-insurance inventory method, tax/accounting record, or storage safety recommendation.

Pro Tip: Physical water-shrink math depends on initial moisture, target moisture, and wet bushels. Buyer schedules may include shrink, handling, discounts, grade terms, and contract language that this screen does not validate.

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Grain Moisture Shrink Calculator
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How It Works

  1. Enter Moisture Levels

    Input the initial moisture percentage and target moisture percentage from your own test, ticket, or planning assumption.

  2. Enter Quantity

    Use wet bushels or wet pounds. Weight mode converts pounds to bushels using the selected local test-weight row, which still needs measured load validation.

  3. Enter Buyer Schedule Inputs

    Input the per-point shrink factor, handling allowance, and price you want to screen. Verify the actual buyer schedule and contract terms outside the app.

Built For

  • Farmers screening wet-to-dry bushel shrink before storage or delivery decisions
  • Farm managers comparing a buyer schedule with physical water-shrink arithmetic
  • Grain merchandisers preparing questions for tickets, grade, and settlement review

Assumptions

  • Physical dry bushels use wet bushels multiplied by (100 - initial moisture) / (100 - target moisture)
  • Buyer shrink is the user-entered shrink factor multiplied by wet bushels and moisture points removed
  • Handling allowance is entered separately as a percent of wet bushels
  • Commodity price is user-entered and does not include live price, basis, fees, freight, storage, tax, or contract terms
  • Test-weight rows are local planning defaults and require measured load or ticket validation
  • Moisture, grade, dockage, and quality data remain external source gaps

Limitations

  • Does not determine whether a buyer schedule is fair, legal, profitable, current, or complete
  • Does not account for dry matter loss, handling loss, broken kernels, fines, dockage, foreign material, test-weight changes, quality discounts, rewetting, or spoilage unless entered separately
  • Does not replace scale tickets, calibrated moisture testing, FGIS/USDA grade review, buyer schedules, or contract documents
  • Does not model basis, freight, storage charges, financing, tax, accounting, crop-insurance, or marketing alternatives
  • Not applicable to ear corn or high-moisture corn stored as silage
  • Not a storage safety, drying safety, or grain-bin entry procedure

References

  • Purdue Extension / National Corn Handbook NCH-61 - Calculating Grain Weight Shrinkage in Corn Due to Mechanical Drying
  • South Dakota State University Extension - Corn Grain Moisture Discount: Why and How Much?
  • 7 CFR Part 810 - Official United States Standards for Grain source pointer
  • USDA AMS Grain Standards public source pointer
  • Actual buyer schedules, scale tickets, grade certificates, contracts, and qualified grain-marketing/accounting review

Frequently Asked Questions

No. It compares entered schedule terms with physical water-shrink arithmetic. Buyer schedules may include handling, risk, contract language, grade discounts, rounding, and local market terms that require direct review.
The app uses dry_bu = wet_bu × (100 - initial moisture) / (100 - target moisture). Physical shrink is wet bushels minus calculated dry bushels.
No. Use actual scale tickets, moisture tests, grade certificates, buyer schedules, contracts, crop-insurance methods, accounting records, and qualified review for those decisions.
Disclaimer: This is a preliminary moisture-shrink planning screen. It does not certify grade, decide settlement, interpret contracts, validate buyer schedules, approve storage, or create crop-insurance, tax, or accounting records.

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