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Grand Rapids, MI | I think the answer to your question all depends on what you are using it for. If you are using it occasionally to do a quick check of the moisture to see if a field is ready to harvest, etc. then spend the $200 and don't think for another second. All these testers will get you within 1%
If on the other hand you are drying a substantial number of bushels of grain, and need to control the finished moisture content of the grain, consider going with a commercial grade tester. The "legal for trade" standard is NTEP, the GAC 2100 as mentioned above is a good example of one of these. One caution, not many if any of these are portable units, and because of the standards they are somewhat sensitive to temperature, so you will want to keep them in a heated building if you live in the north and use them late into the fall.
I do the math this way, using corn as an example: If you dry 100,000 bu of corn, and dry it an extra .5% of moisture becasue you are not sure of your tester, or not getting accurate readings, that translates into 700 bu extra shrink. At $4 per bushel that is $2800 per year. Starts to pay for better a better tester pretty quick.
If you have to use a portable tester you can achieve much better results if you calibrate your unit against a NTEP approved tester. I would take a sample and test it 3 times on the NTEP tester, then 10 or more on the portable. Average the results and note the offset. Program this into your portable tester if you can, otherwise write it on a piece of tape and attach and adjust yourself each time. When you test with the portable tester be sure to average 3-5 tests for each sample, you will probably be suprised how much they vary. With an average though, you should get much closer. A bet simpler method might be to use an "olympic" average, throwing out the high and low.
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Moisture testers------ good? bad??
